Dr. Darsi Ferrer is director of the Juan Bruno Zayas Centre for Health and Human Rights in Havana, Cuba which, among other things, has organized meetings every December 10 to promote the International Day of Human Rights. Naturally, this small organization has no legal protection in this Communist controlled country and last year the Castro brothers added Ferrer to their long list of political prisoners.After a visit from Vatican Foreign Minister Dominque Mamberti last week, Ferrer was conditionally released to serve the rest of his sentence at home. The Cuban government will do this every once in awhile, let out a prisoner or two for publicity purposes, while continuing to let thousands of innocents languish in the awful prison system.
But Ferrer isn't playing the game. Though endangering his safety, he is still speaking out about the prison conditions under Castro. Pray for him. And please consider adding to your prayers letters to your political representatives, asking them to put human rights on the front burner of American foreign policy. They are certainly not doing so now.
The following is an excerpt of his interview with Radio Netherlands, an interview in which he promised to speak out against injustice “now more than ever. Because of my life as a prisoner I became more conscious of the suffering of the Cuban people.”
The circumstances in the Cuban prisons are inhuman. They are overloaded and each prisoner has less than halve a square meter to live on. The corridors are overcrowded and a lot of prisoners are forced to sleep on the ground, because of a lack of beds. The food is scarce and has no nutritional value. Chicken is the only food that contains a bit of protein, which they only serve twice a month.
They don’t pay any attention to the prisoners and there is practically no medical help. I was located in one of the most severe prisons near Havana, together with two thousand other convicts. For these two thousand men, there were only six or seven doctors, and, for example, no possibility to realize blood tests, or to treat patients with diabetes. (…) Also for healthy prisoners it is hard to avoid illness considering the bad nutrition and the stress.
These miserable circumstances consequently lead to a lot of violence. Each week a bloody incident occurs, when prisoners are in conflict with sick people who are no longer accountable. Furthermore, all prisoners live under an inhumane military regime which damages their dignity. There is no medical or spiritual help. Prisoners are also frequently beaten up by soldiers.
The prisoners are completely defenseless. When a group of eight or ten soldiers is beating up a prisoner, people remain silent. They pick him up and throw him in a cell two by two square meter cell and leave him there for days.
Because of a serious lack of hygiene in the prisons, contagious diseases are spread, consequently causing epidemics...
The Cuban people live in a hopeless situation. The system has failed and the regime can only react with more repression. This makes the people hopeless. The will to change and reform is growing. The prisons are full with people who only wanted to help and tried to support their families...
