Letter From Prison: Hector Maseda

this is part of a letter (originally in Spanish) written July 7, 2006, by Cuban political prisoner Hector Maseda. Maseda was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2003 during a government crackdown on dissidents and independent journalists.

recently, he (among with other prisoners) requested visits to the medical facility in their prison, only to be stripped naked, locked in a small hallway, and denied the medical treatment:


hector maseda


We were treated inhumanely and in a degrading manner when we were kept for no reason, and for a number of hours, locked in a small hallway with insufficient room for all of us, without bathroom facilities, without any sort of care, and with threats when we complained of the conditions that we would be treated worse if we continued to complain.

. . . It was not necessary to handcuff us and even less necessary to strip us naked in front of the others . . . There were some among us with medical problems and in pain, and instead of the medical attention we had requested, we were punished so that we would think it ten times over in the future before asking for medical services.

... One prisoner had sores on his feet to the extent he could not walk. Another prisoner, Fidel Garin, has been taken daily to the medical post for the last year and a half for treatment. Myself, I have been visiting the medical post on a weekly basis since December, 2005 to take my blood pressure, body weight, and to see if i have any new health issues.

I asked the prosecutor if he thought I was lying. He said he did not. I told him that I was convinced that it was useless to complain of mistreatment since all the involved entities (Interior Order, Jail and Prisons, the Military Prosecutor, and the Ministry of the Armed Forces) are part of a system that defends and protects itself.


hector maseda with his wife,
Laura Pollan, in happier times