Hombre del Silencio: The Prison Diary of Ramon Labanino [one of the Cuban 5 heroes] Part 3: Family and Prison; Family Visits; Visits of the Cuban Interests Section

Family and prison

There is no end to the things of the heart.

Li Tai Po

Undoubtedly the mainstay of one’s life in prison is the family, it is the most direct support. Family was everything for me, the very essence. I even reflected with my wife and daughters, and I told them, I survive in prison because I am outside, with you.

For example, Elizabeth and I achieved a system of communication with the girls, in which I lived the day to day life of my daughters. If they went to school, if they got good grades, if they fought. I would scold them while they were in prison, on weekends I would punish them so they wouldn’t go out if they misbehaved. Ely would tell them that they had to talk to me to see if I would let them out. If they had a boyfriend I had to know, even the boyfriend’s identity card had to be given to me to know who he was, where he was from, what his family was like; we had a very nice communication. Because we lived in that, that was our life, to be present-absent, and that kept us healthy, it allowed me not to get too involved in prison life.

My life really developed with the family in Cuba, what was happening on the island, the gasoline, the price of things that was sky high, if the people were happy, everything, and that allowed us to have contact with the Cuban reality, but without a doubt the contact with the family was crucial, and I felt powerless when there were problems, when there was an illness of one of the girls, or a note from the school in which we had to discuss with a teacher, or a family discussion in which I was not present. One went crazy reading the letters, that helplessness that you are locked up and you can’t do anything, and that is what one suffers most in prison, what one suffers most is the remoteness of the family, of the girls at their birthday parties.

Anniversaries were difficult for me, like weddings. Not to mention the end of the year, they were heartbreaking. When December came, I wanted to jump to January, February. Even my birthday affected me.

Once a conflict arose between my brothers and I had to scold them hard, and I told one of them that if he didn’t do what he was supposed to do, he shouldn’t talk to me anymore. I spoke to him very harshly. I also called my father’s attention harshly when we had a little disagreement, because I am not only the father of my little family, of my daughters, in my family my brothers call me Daddy, and what I say is the law, that is the truth.

For my siblings I am the one in charge, neither my father nor my mother, the one in charge in my house was me, because my mother raised us with the respect that the eldest son was also the father of the family when my father was not there, but many times my father was there and my authority was imposed, because I always demanded my siblings to study, and in that I am a whip with them, because nowadays they do something wrong, then that kind of relationship was achieved in the daily life, in our daily life. I would make an account, they are fine, we have our comrades in Cuba, they have our people, they have our office to attend them and we were calm, because in the end everything was solved. That gave us a lot of peace of mind.

Ramon’s last photo with his mother, Nereida Salazar, and his aunt Oneida Salazar, Nello

About my soul baby

My mother, Nereida Salazar Verduit, was the most important person in my life, not only for giving me life but for making me the person I am today. We had a very nice relationship, we talked a lot, we made agreements and built dreams to achieve together with the whole family. She was the one who raised us with the idea that the eldest son was also the second father of the family.

She always wanted me to be a military man, she dreamed of seeing me dressed in uniform. It was something I could not fulfill, because, although I was already a military man from a very young age, for reasons of compartmentalization, I could not dress like that, much less confide to her that I was a member of the State Security or the real mission I was fulfilling in the United States in defense of Cuba. For her, as for everyone else, I was a manager of a firm in Spain that was looking for medicines and merchandise for our country, and with that idea I left in 1998, just three months before I was arrested in Miami on September 12. At the call of my colleagues in Cuba, I came urgently from the United States, because “my baby” was seriously ill. When

I went straight to the hospital to see her, which was heartbreaking.

The date was very close to Mother’s Day, so we agreed to take her to our house and give her all our love and joy on those days. Even at that moment I could not dress up in military clothes as she dreamed. A week later she passed away. For that reason, as an apology, I wrote her two poems: “Debt” and “Letter to an absent mother”. I confess that I cannot read them aloud, the anguish I feel does not allow me to utter words. For me she has never left, she lives on in my soul.

The last picture I took with my mother, Nereida Salazar, and my aunt Oneida Salazar, Nello.

Family visits

The happiest moments we experienced were family visits. Receiving a visit was very complex. When we were at our best, which was during the Obama presidency, towards the end, they sometimes happened twice a year, but usually only once.

During the Bush era we went two and a half years without anyone visiting us. I saw the girls once a year, and my wife once a year. Then they let my dad go. It was only once a year for each family member, and later I finally managed to include my siblings and my oldest daughter. That’s why I chose to separate the family members. So Ely and the girls would come in July and August, for school vacations, my dad I might leave him for the end of the year, my dad would come with my siblings, and that allowed Ailí, the oldest, to come in March.

That way I had more visits, although in practice it was only one, but I did it staggered so that I could enjoy the family more. We spent six hours talking every time we met, but we didn’t have enough time.

I was fortunate, because Gerardo never received a visit from Adriana, his wife. He received visits from other family members, his sisters, nephews and nieces, and his mother at first. René never received a visit from Olguita, his companion, either.

Another aspect of the visitation was that it was awarded by points, which was a Machiavellian system. For example, you got six visitation points per month. In a single session the maximum number of visitors you can have is five seniors. You could not bring more than five people over eighteen, under eighteen there could be two or three, and each visit cost you one point if it was from Monday to Friday, but if it was a weekend it cost two points, two points on Saturday and two points on Sunday, and if it was a holiday it also cost you two points.

There were prisons where they gave ten points, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays there were no visits, there were Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, which cost three points, Saturdays five, Sundays seven, and Mondays eight.

Other times there were eight visit points, and you had to use those eight points and you could not earn more, so what we did to have more visits was that we used only the weekdays: Monday, Thursday and Friday, which are already three days, and we waited again for Monday and there were six, and then Monday and Thursday and there were the eight points, and on Friday the relatives left.

That way we saw each other more often, which didn’t happen if you used the weekend. A weekend cost two days, the same as a holiday. So we staggered it to have more frequent visits. The visits were supposed to start at eight o’clock, but we were almost always called at nine or ten o’clock, until three o’clock in the afternoon.

There were prisons where visits were only on Saturday and Sunday. Two weekends. Others were from three in the afternoon until eight at night. All prisons are different. That was crazy.

The other part of the issue is that the visits have to be from close family members, such as spouses, children, parents, and siblings. Everyone else has to apply, that is, they have to fill out a form with all their data and say why they want to visit the prisoner. They evaluate the case and give their approval or not. It should be noted that our friends in the solidarity movement who wanted to visit us went through this process, but the great majority were rejected as a way of punishing us. For example, an excuse they used a lot to deny visits was that the person did not know us before being imprisoned, but this was not true for the other detainees, for whom one hundred percent of their visitors were people they did not know. Our case was always unique in every way. Relatives sometimes arrived at six o’clock in the morning and could not enter until nine o’clock. They also had to pass a rigorous checkup at the entrance, pass a metal detector.

Sometimes they would not let them in if they were wearing a strong perfume, because they said they had a strong odor, and they used sensors to see if they could detect any type of drug. In our case we were lucky, because they almost never turned down a relative for these reasons, but they checked the clothes, if they were tight, if they had necklines, the women had to wear long clothes, long pants, short skirts were not allowed, nothing provocative. The visit was under the supervision of the guard. They only allowed a kiss and a hug at the entrance. And a kiss and a hug on the way out. No physical contact of any kind was allowed, you can’t be touching the person, you can’t put your arm around your daughters or your wife. The whole visit is seated, we are in chairs talking, inside that special visiting area, if you commit any infraction right there they suspend the visit, they send you to the hole, and they make the family leave.

Inside that visiting area there is a food vending machine that is quite expensive, by the way, even though all it sells are knick-knacks, small pizzas, hamburgers, etc. In very exceptional cases and with a lot of luck, I was able to buy ice cream, ice cream was my craze, chocolate, which I have always liked very much, but it was at very high prices, much more expensive than in the street, which did not allow us to eat much, what we ate most were packets of potato chips and Tostitos, things like that.

At about three o’clock in the afternoon you had to say goodbye until the next day. I was lucky that in the prisons I was in the visits were from Thursday to Monday, there were no Tuesdays or Wednesdays. The most difficult moment was always the farewell, I tried to make it as joyful as possible, that moment of the last minute of each visit, and especially the last minute of the last visit is heartbreaking, because you do not know when you will see your people again, since a thousand things can happen in a prison, and at that moment a tremendous sadness overwhelms you. When that last day came

I always told my relatives that this was not the last day, but the first day of the next day, so that they would feel happy too, especially the girls, my wife, my eldest daughter who is very sentimental. Then little by little you get over it, with time you try to forget those things, even though you are left with the nostalgia of that moment.

The Visits of the Cuban Interests Section

The visits of the Interests Section were made after requesting permission from the State Department, because their officials had to move to places outside of Washington D.C. and it was established that they could not leave the city. They also had to inform even the hotel where they were going to stay, in which room they would be staying, and they could only make the visit and return to the hotel, they could not go around the city or visit anyone else. It was strictly a consular visit, and almost always took place at the beginning of the month, once a month, then it was once every three months, and in the end it was once a month again, which was almost always on Sundays or Saturdays. Sometimes the ambassador would come, there we were updated, they told us everything that could be said. But more or less we understood the most complex things, even if they were masked.

The Interests Office was essential to us. From the beginning it gave us legal and diplomatic representation. How was the legal process we had to organize, if we came up with something to do, some new motion, they supported us and kept us abreast of everything, if a new lawyer was going to be hired, they took care of it, and many more things in this regard.

They sent us a press report every week. Everything that was being said about Cuba, good, fair, bad, whatever it was, was divided into sections, political, economic, cultural, sports. This report arrived periodically. They sent us magazines, newspapers, posters, agendas, whatever we needed.

Once I asked them for a map of Cuba and they brought it to me. The truth is that those comrades were there whenever I needed them. We maintained constant telephone communication, at least once, twice, or three times a month I would call them to see how everything was going, if there was any appeal, if Gerardo had any problem, or if Tony had a problem, if René was in the hole, that is, they were our brothers in the United States for everything. Recently, Josefina Vidal came to see me; she was the only woman diplomat who visited me.

I remember the first visit I received in prison, when I was already in the different prisons of the federal system, I felt a great joy to see the Cuban comrades. The visits began at nine in the morning and ended at three in the afternoon. We talked about everything, it was a great unloading, speaking in good Cuban, we talked about the family, about all the problems that existed, about the decisions that were made to benefit the family members, we also talked about the whole legal process, even about the things that were being done to improve the team of lawyers, the appeals of the different motions, the strategy in the legal field, the political strategy, the solidarity movement, how important it was to raise public opinion not only nationally but also internationally. We talked about the situation in the prisons, who were my celies, who were my cellmates, they asked if there was any danger to my safety, any specific situation.

14    Saturday: I called you for five minutes (that’s what they allow) and you were not there. I imagine you in the “Tribune”. Yesterday I received three cheerful letters: Jim Smith, the good American friend, crazy to hear from you and when you come, to attend you. I wrote him a long letter, and gave him a photo of the four of us during the April/May/2002 visit. Dick J. Reavis, of the San Antonio Express News, gave me a written interview (by letter); they denied him the personal one, they say because it could cause problems to the Institution or to third parties here (imagine!…) he says he will publish it soon. I urge him to do so. Rosa Peñate and Alicia Jrapko, dear sisters from California, from the International Action Center and “Free the Five” give me a long interview by letters. It is about my life in Beaumont, I already answered. They will do the same with the five of us. Gerardo’s letter was published on September 12 in the Workers World, with a “Hollywood” type photo, it was very good, I liked it very much.

15    Sunday – Mrs. Clifton, the Case Manager of my Unit, came by to greet me, she said, impressed, that she had already read my sentencing plea, she was missing the boys’. She expressed to me that I was like an “American patriot”, by words, by action. She was very interested in knowing more about the case, I promised her a book when René’s Diary comes out. I was dumbfounded by the scene, I didn’t know what to say. A few days ago, something similar happened to me with the Counsellor, Bienvenido Leon, a Puerto Rican, he said in front of many people and Cubans too, that I was the “most honest and correct Cuban he had ever met.” I was also very surprised. You know their job is to study us, at least they don’t seem to have bad judgment of us. Leon is also reading a booklet with the allegations. The Light in the Darkness – I was fascinated. 11:30p.m.

16 Monday.-I received six letters, the Granma Internacional courtesy of the Pathfinder brothers, and a voluminous envelope of with press information sent by the comrades of the Interests Section in Washington D.C. I spoke with Anselmo on the phone: Friday 27, I will have visits from him and David, if we are not already locked up.