CUBAN DENTIST, A PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE IN CUBA, GRAVELY ILL,CLAIMS HE PREFERS TO DIE RATHER THAN RENOUNCE HIS IDEALS

CUBAN DENTIST, A PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE IN CUBA, GRAVELY ILL
CLAIMS HE PREFERS TO DIE RATHER THAN RENOUNCE HIS IDEALS

Camaguey
Testimony of Rebeca Rodriguez Sauto
Taped, transcribed, and translated into English
Coalition of Cuban-American Women
Laida Carro / Tanya Wilder
La Nueva Cuba
April 25, 2006

On April 18, 2006, Rebeca Rodriguez Sauto went to Kilo 7 Prison in the
province of Camaguey for a family visit, which is permitted every 45
days, with her husband, Dr. Alfredo Pulido Lopez, and found that his
health has significantly worsened.

Dr. Pulido, a prisoner of conscience, continues to lose weight,
according to Rebeca. He is now at least 20 pounds under what he weighed
when he was incarcerated in 2003. She had never seen her husband so
depressed and psychologically distraught. According to the Cuban
dentist’s testimony, his condition is related to the fact that ‘the
situation in prison is very serious because there is a lot of aggression
among the prisoners,’ and he pointed out that a few days beforehand, one
prisoner had killed another. ‘We are constantly under inspection. They
call those of us that are political prisoners ‘counter-revolutionaries’
and treat us like common criminals.’

Chronic bronchitis and a lack of air also affect Dr. Pulido’s health,
and recently, dark bruises of an unknown origin have appeared on his skin.

The prisoner of conscience told his wife that because of the serious
illnesses from which he suffers, the authorities should have granted him
a medical parole some time ago, and he added that they will not grant
him release “because my convictions are firm, and I make them quite
clear.” Dr. Pulido stated that he has no real reason to ask for a
medical parole since he is an innocent man to begin with and what the
Cuban authorities really have to give him is FREEDOM. He continued
telling his wife, ‘I am more firm in my convictions every day. I am not
going to renounce them. They (the prison authorities) know that my
health is affected. They can do what they want.’

Rebeca Rodriguez Sauto stated that her husband told her the reason he
believed that in 2003 the authorities in Cuba tried and incarcerated him
along with 74 other Cuban citizens who peacefully expressed their
independent ideas on the island: “the objective is to eliminate us
physically.”

Dr. Pulido, 46, practiced dentistry for 22 years until 1998 when he was
expelled from his clinic for linking himself to the dissident movement
through the Christian Liberation Movement. In 2001, he began to work as
an independent journalist in Camagüey, and he is a Master Mason as well.
He was detained on March 18, 2003, and sentenced in a summary trial to
14 years in prison under Article 91 of the Cuban penal code and Law 88,
also known as the Gag Law. He is confined to a barrack with 100 common
prisoners, many of whom are condemned for murder, in Kilo 7 Prison in
Camagüey.

We make an urgent request to dignitaries of democratic nations, to human
rights organizations, to religious, civic, and political leaders, to the
international press, and to men and women of good faith in the world to
demand that the Cuban government grant unconditional freedom and
immediate release to Dr. Alfredo Pulido Lopez and all those in Cuba
imprisoned for exercising fundamental freedoms.

Testimony of Rebeca Rodriguez Sauto given by telephone from Cuba. Taped,
transcribed, and translated into English.Coalition of Cuban-American
Women / LAIDA CARRO / TANYA WILDER

E-mails: Joseito76@aol.com / tswilder@charter.net

Rebeca Rodriguez Sauto: Address: Palomino #445 entre Linea y Primera,
Reparto La Mascota, Camaguey, Cuba. Tel: + 53-32-25391

http://www.lanuevacuba.com/nuevacuba/notic-06-04-2570.htm