Chapter five. Cuban prison
Oscar Mario spent 18 months in prison for publications on www.cubanet.org. He was not sentenced to imprisonment, he was simply detained. He spent a third of the term in the confinement cell where people do not spend more than 2 or 3 days. You cannot bring anything there: no cloths, no soap, no books. It is a basement where there is no light and no windows, you never know whether it is daytime or night. Oscar Mario spent six months there.
He had to sleep on the floor crawling with spiders and cockroaches. A blanket could be used only from 10 p.m. till 5 a.m.
Then he was taken to many prisons. For example, he spent some time in a prison cell for 80 people. However, there were more than 100 prisoners in it. So, there were not enough beds for everyone.
He could meet his family only once a week for 10 or 15 minutes. He was not allowed to talk about the living conditions in prison. The administration of the prison often did like this: they told him that the meeting was on Monday and his wife was told that it was on Wednesday. Obviously, there was no meeting in such a case. It was a torment for him – his wife had not come. And she thought it was him who had not come.
Oscar Mario did not stand any trial. He was let off. However, the journalist acquired a lot of health problems. He started suffering from diabetes, allergy, diarrhea, hypertension and problems with his stomach and kidneys.
“I am more careful now, says Oscar Mario. – I managed to survive 18 months in prison at that time but I won’t be able to survive 10 days now”.
There were about 10 or 12 prisons and about 12 thousand prisoners in Cuba in 1958. Now there are more than 200 prisons and millions of prisoners on the whole island. By the way, a political prisoner sentenced to the longer term of imprisonment in the world is a Cuban. The term was 30 years. Here is a map of Cuban prisoners (red dots) in 1958. Cubans says that the whole island must be covered with red dots now.
When Oscar Mario found out I was from Belarus, he immediately started speaking Russian to me. It turned out that he studied in a polytechnical university in Krasnodar. There is only one “A” in Oscar Mario’s diploma – for “Marxist-Leninist studies”.
He did believe in the revolution, says the journalist. Now he knows much more. He has lived in three countries and knows what Cuban socialism means.
Oscar Mario: “I though that communism was not a bad thing. Then I saw that communism was dictatorship. I work as an independent journalist now. I spent 17 months in prison. Fidel’s dictatorship does not allow us to work”.
Oscar Mario: “I though that communism was not a bad thing. Then I saw that communism was dictatorship. I work as an independent journalist now. I spent 17 months in prison. Fidel’s dictatorship does not allow us to work”.
“I am not a very pious person, - says Oscar Mario. – But sometimes I think that Cuba is cursed”.
His daughter Alena (born from his first wife from Russia) lives in Sweden. She occupies a high office there. His son and his grandson are 15 years old. They have visited their grandfather in Cuba recently. Oscar Mario also visited them in Sweden in 1998. He was not such a famous journalist at that time. He received a Schengen visa in 2004 and bought presents for his daughter and grandson. However, the authorities annulled the visa a week before the trip.
Oscar Mario wrote a little note to his daughter and gave it to Sarah in our presence. There were only greetings in it and he said he liked us.
To be continued...
He had to sleep on the floor crawling with spiders and cockroaches. A blanket could be used only from 10 p.m. till 5 a.m.
Then he was taken to many prisons. For example, he spent some time in a prison cell for 80 people. However, there were more than 100 prisoners in it. So, there were not enough beds for everyone.
He could meet his family only once a week for 10 or 15 minutes. He was not allowed to talk about the living conditions in prison. The administration of the prison often did like this: they told him that the meeting was on Monday and his wife was told that it was on Wednesday. Obviously, there was no meeting in such a case. It was a torment for him – his wife had not come. And she thought it was him who had not come.
Oscar Mario did not stand any trial. He was let off. However, the journalist acquired a lot of health problems. He started suffering from diabetes, allergy, diarrhea, hypertension and problems with his stomach and kidneys.
“I am more careful now, says Oscar Mario. – I managed to survive 18 months in prison at that time but I won’t be able to survive 10 days now”.
There were about 10 or 12 prisons and about 12 thousand prisoners in Cuba in 1958. Now there are more than 200 prisons and millions of prisoners on the whole island. By the way, a political prisoner sentenced to the longer term of imprisonment in the world is a Cuban. The term was 30 years. Here is a map of Cuban prisoners (red dots) in 1958. Cubans says that the whole island must be covered with red dots now.
When Oscar Mario found out I was from Belarus, he immediately started speaking Russian to me. It turned out that he studied in a polytechnical university in Krasnodar. There is only one “A” in Oscar Mario’s diploma – for “Marxist-Leninist studies”.
He did believe in the revolution, says the journalist. Now he knows much more. He has lived in three countries and knows what Cuban socialism means.
Oscar Mario: “I though that communism was not a bad thing. Then I saw that communism was dictatorship. I work as an independent journalist now. I spent 17 months in prison. Fidel’s dictatorship does not allow us to work”.
Oscar Mario: “I though that communism was not a bad thing. Then I saw that communism was dictatorship. I work as an independent journalist now. I spent 17 months in prison. Fidel’s dictatorship does not allow us to work”.
“I am not a very pious person, - says Oscar Mario. – But sometimes I think that Cuba is cursed”.
His daughter Alena (born from his first wife from Russia) lives in Sweden. She occupies a high office there. His son and his grandson are 15 years old. They have visited their grandfather in Cuba recently. Oscar Mario also visited them in Sweden in 1998. He was not such a famous journalist at that time. He received a Schengen visa in 2004 and bought presents for his daughter and grandson. However, the authorities annulled the visa a week before the trip.
Oscar Mario wrote a little note to his daughter and gave it to Sarah in our presence. There were only greetings in it and he said he liked us.
To be continued...
