DECLARATION FROM POLITICAL PRISONER JUAN CARLOS HERRERA ACOSTA DENOUNCING PRISON TERRORISM

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DECLARATION FROM POLITICAL PRISONER JUAN CARLOS HERRERA ACOSTA DENOUNCING PRISON TERRORISM
By Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta

In an urgent declaration obtained from the prison in Camagüey, political prisoner Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta reaffirms the principles of his struggle for human rights and liberty in Cuba, while at the same time manifesting his fear for his life due to threats and manipulations of State Security within said prison. The document was read via telephone to the Cuban Democratic Directorate by Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina, executive member of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy with its headquarters in Guantánamo, Cuba.

“From the Kilo 8 Prison, a special regimen also know as ‘I lost my key,’ in the face of prison terrorism in Camagüey, I make it known to the Cuban people and to the international community that despite the physical and psychological torture that I suffer, of the inhumane forced exile and the unjust imprisonment for defending democracy, and the reinstatement of civil society which has been held captive for more than 47 years by entrenched Castroism. I will not hoist a flag of dishonor. They will not make me surrender, and they will not be able to silence my voice.

I fight because the light of truth and liberty reaches this land converted into a feudal estate before a Caesar that bleeds her dry. As a dignified son of this country, I am willing to offer my life if it is necessary to defend pacifism, so that peace and concordance would thrive in the land of Varela and Marti. I do not discard the possibility that a clinically induced death, at the hands of the commissars of terror, will truncate my life. But as long as I have strength and my heart is beating, I will continue to fight from inside the monstrous womb of Castro’s prisons.

I will never lower myself to bow down, nor will I live on my knees, and as Jose Marti would express, I reiterate: “I want the first law of our Republic to be the respect of Cubans for the plain dignity of man.” The price to pay has been very high. Pain, grief, and exile constitute the panacea that is Castro’s 47 year reign of terror.

But I do not resign to live condemned, I am simply continuing the dignified example of the historical Cuban political presidio. Freedom for Cuba! God, Country, and Liberty! May human rights thrive and prevail in my country!

Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, independent journalist and national coordinator for the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy, condemned to 20 years in prison for exercising his right to free speech

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