March 17th, 2003

Distinguished guests,

Dear friends:

Although we are here today to celebrate humor and joy, we are also here to pay homage to five compatriots, particularly one of them, Gerardo --an outstanding Cuban artist, whose work our people have known and appreciated since Gerardo was very young, as all his colleagues here know.

Although we are here today to celebrate feelings associated with happiness and high spirit, I have to tell you that we are also paying homage to a man that is being subjected to physical and psychological torture.

Yesterday, we were in contact until very late at night, with one of the Five's defense lawyers. He visited Gerardo in his prison in Lompoc, California. We should point out that since February 28th our five compatriots have been placed in what they call there "the hole" -an area where prisoners are placed in solitary confinement and denied communication with other prisoners and the outside world.

After analyzing their situation, we realized that they have now been placed in a "hole", very much worse than that in which they spent 17 months, following their arrest in Miami and in which they were later placed again for other 48 days, while the judicial process was already underway.

The first time they were placed in the "hole", at least they were allowed to communicate with their attorneys. Now they have even been denied that possibility, at a crucial time when they need to be in direct contact with their lawyers to prepare the documents which must be presented no later than April 7th to the Atlanta 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The US government is well aware of this.

As soon as people learned about this new violation, there was a flood of protests, as well as expressions of solidarity with the Five. We have learned of tens of thousands of messages sent to US embassies in many capitals around the world by people demanding an end to this new violation, this cruel and unusual punishment.

We announced that, among other things, the US government had taken this measure after they knew that the defense lawyers had been communicating with their clients, sending them correspondence and asking their points of view on several issues. This is a stage in which the attorneys and their clients work together preparing the defense documents that the lawyers would later present on behalf of their clients. The US authorities were aware of these planned visits to the prisoners by their lawyers to discuss these issues.

WEINGLAS' LETTER

Among other things, they knew, because Leonard Weinglass had made all the arrangements, he would be in Lompoc on Sunday, March the 16th. On Friday night, March 14th, Weinglass received a communication from the South Florida District Attorney's Office, informing him, as if they were doing him a big favor, that he had been authorized to visit Gerardo, just as he had been told several weeks before.

Weinglass, who finally visited Gerardo, sent us a message, the most important part of which I'm going to read here so that you know his current situation:

"I just left Gerardo and I'm sending this message from Lompoc. Gerardo was taken away from the place where he was working on February the 28th and placed in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) -known in the United States as the "hole". They never said why. After being there for less than one hour, he was taken out of there and placed in a punishment cell especially for those who demonstrate violent behavior in the Special Housing Unit. This is the most severe punishment in the prison, which is referred to as "the box".

"He is being held in a small cell with no windows. The bars in front are covered with a metal mesh screen through which it is almost impossible to see anything. The metal door has only a slot through which food is passed. There are two fluorescent tubes in his cell, the only cell in which the lights remain switched on 24 hours a day. He cannot tell whether it is day or night. Outside his cell, there is a very narrow corridor with a wall on the other side and a metal door that remains closed 24 hours a day. In the cell there is a toilet and a concrete bed with a thin mattress."

"The space is extremely small in which one can take only three steps. His clothes were taken from him and he is wearing only underpants and a T-shirt. He is not allowed to wear shoes. No printed material is permitted. There is a sign on his cell's door stating that no one is to have any contact with him."

"As I was leaving, they emptied the corridor through which Gerardo was to return to his cell, so that no one could talk to or have any contact with him. There are 14 cells, but it's practically impossible to see anything from one to the other. Many of the other prisoners being held in other "boxes" suffer mental health problems and cry constantly, making it very difficult for him to sleep with the noise."

"Gerardo has unsuccessfully attempted to register a complaint under the prison's established procedures but he has been told that there are no complaint forms available. On March 2nd he filed an informal complaint, as the correct form had not been supplied to him, but he hasn't received any response."

"On March 11th the prison authorities brought him a letter from Joaquín Méndez, one of the defense attorneys, but they took it away before he could read it. He was told that he would be granted access to his legal mail. However, to date he has received nothing - not even correspondence from us."

"In spite of all this, he seems to be in good health, very strong and in good spirits. He says that this segregation regime is very much worse than that he had to endure in Miami, but that he now also feels much stronger."

"Gerardo told me and I quote: 'As I wake up every morning my star gives me strength to continue on throughout the day'. His strength also comes from his other four compatriots, whom he presumes are suffering this same treatment and also from the growing international support for their cause. He sent his best wishes to his family and asked me to tell them to be strong."

This is, essentially, what Leonard Weinglas found in Lompoc, yesterday afternoon, March 16th, when he visited Gerardo.

"THE BOX": A PLACE FOR TORTURE

It is obvious that a new violation is being committed -without even referring to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights or the United Nations Charter. Let's not even mention the several international conventions on the treatment of detainees or prisoners, but rather prison regulations in the United States itself.

The "hole" is a place for punishment, reserved for inmates who have violated jail discipline such as committing violent acts within the prison. The "box", because as you may have noticed their capacity to invent new torture methods seems to be beyond limits, is a place reserved for those who seriously violate discipline inside the "hole".

At the time they placed them in the "hole" they couldn't allege any misconduct on the part of the five. Had they so alleged, certainly no one would have believed that five inmates in five different prisons in five different US states throughout the country at the same time committed an indiscipline that, supposedly, justified their being transferred and placed in solitary confinement in these special units.
However, it is obvious that Gerardo did not commit any indiscipline or act of violence during the few minutes in which he was kept in his cell in the Special Housing Unit, the so-called "hole".
They are simply torturing them in order to crush their will; it is all a matter of doing things they think they can do, with total impunity, as long as the world ignores what they are doing.
THE EFFECTS OF A DENUNCIATION
We have to say that the accusation that we began to make on February 28th has had some effect. That is what explains that, finally, on Friday night they decided to allow one of the defense attorneys to visit one of the Five; as if they were doing a favor; as if it were a concession of the Florida Judge whom should be thanked for that; as if she was there, just handing out a privilege, when the truth is that they were defensively reacting to what would have put the US administration in a difficult position.
Bear in mind that when Mr. Ashcroft, the one that conceives and put into effect this kind of torture, when he was appointed as the US Secretary of Justice, and thus Attorney General, the first thing he ordered was that the naked bust of the image of Justice - in front of the Justice Department in Washington - be covered. This decision was not only ridiculous; it was not only an expression of Mr. Ashcroft's particular idea about aesthetics and sex but it was also a symbol and a message that he was sending to the American people: "covering" justice, hiding their proceedings, depriving human beings from accurate information and making the violations, arbitrary measures and crimes that this man has imposed as a customary norm in that country's prisons an essential component of their policy.
In this case, it is the most shameless way to obstruct justice and the US legal proceedings.
A COMPLETE INSOLENCE
How is it possible that the attorneys cannot openly communicate with their clients when there is an appeal still pending? How can a defendant prepare his case if he is not allowed to receive any written material or to read a communication from one of his attorneys, like in the case of Joaquín?
And they do it in such an insolent manner that they even show the message to the prisoner but they don't let him read it. They are not only trampling on the laws and legal proceedings of that country, but they are also openly saying it to them. This proves that there is no Justice there, that they covered it with a mantle the very day that Mr. Ashcroft entered the Department to head the US Attorney General's Office.
Only after a movement of protests began they allowed Weinglass' visit to Gerardo, and we hope that they will soon allow him to visit Antonio Guerrero in Colorado.
We hope that he can do that and also that the Five be allowed, at least, to communicate with the outside world. We hope they put an end to this completely unacceptable situation. We also hope that they take Gerardo out of the "box" and out of the "hole" and that the US courts consider the petition of defense attorney Dr. Joaquín Méndez - whose messages Gerardo is not allowed to read - in which he simply asks that the Five be released on bond pending appeal or that they be transferred to another closer facility, where the attorneys can exercise their right to communicate with their clients.
This is not only about demanding the prisoners' freedom. It is also about demanding that the attorneys' rights be respected; rights that are being vulgarly overlooked by those who have decided to ignore justice.
LET'S BE STRONG AND FIGHT
I have to say that this accusation I am making today is only in reply to a request.
Last night, when we were analyzing this situation we came to the conclusion - and the defense attorney also asked us - that it was indispensable to make this accusation and that this was too much already. Weinglass has a vast experience, a whole life dedicated to defend difficult cases since the 1960s. He has defended political prisoners in the United States or people whose civil rights have been ignored and he does not recall a situation like this one.
I am going to quote him. He said: "Ricardo, this is outrageous; this goes much more beyond what I could have imagined; this is terrible; this has to be denounced; this has to be known".
Now Gerardo is again in that place, where he can not tell when it is day or night and where he is constantly listening to the desperate cries of other prisoners who no one knows for how long have been locked up in their respective "boxes". He can not receive any message, he can not hear any supporting voice, and he is not allowed to have any book or newspaper, not even correspondence from his attorneys. Why shouldn't we believe that he and his four compatriots are being subjected to other ways of psychological and physical torture? How can someone trust those who trample on the most basic rights of defenseless people who are under their absolute control?
The fact that he is not allowed to read the messages from his defense attorney is a vulgar and outrageous violation of Gerardo's and his attorney's rights. It is also a shameless behavior that of the torturer when he shows the letter to Gerardo and does not let him read it. They do just as they please with what international law rules. Those are people of fascist mentality, people who do not have any respect for Justice or the idea of it.
He can not tell when it is day or night, he is not allowed to read or write or draw or see anyone. He only listens to the constant cries of others who suffer and cry day and night. However, Gerardo has sent us a message: Be strong and fight.
Let's be strong and fight like he is doing right now. Let's do whatever is possible so that that grotesque mask that today covers the ideal of Justice in Mr. Ashcroft's palace finally falls down to the ground, and so that the US and all the peoples in the world know the truth of this case.
That is why, comrades, it is an excellent initiative to place in the center of this Biennial the work of an artist who is not only someone who offers his sense of humor, his wit and his innovative spirit, but who is himself a noble homage to culture and to the human spirit. Gerardo himself is a living testimony that there is no "hole", no "box", no henchman and no torturer able to lock up the spirit of a real man or able to kill the noblest ideals of humanity or able to erase the work and the message of a true artist.
Let's be strong and fight. Let's do it day and night and not get tired, because day and night they are fighting and calling on our struggle, our strength and our optimism.
Thank you.