José Antonio López Piña

“As people are unaware of their rights and are devoid of all their rights, they use this mechanism to silence people because there is no better way than to misinform people and maintain a secret with the actions that you are going to do to a person. And when you start to claim your rights and the rights of other inmates in prison, many people won't support you, because they fear the sanction time might be extended. They can take away the supposed benefits they give in a prison, like a ward, like beans, like a stimulus visit, or your parole. And many prisoners talked to me and told me: compadre, I don't support you, I don't get involved in your life, nor am I in favor. But I can't get into that problem, because I want to get out of here in freedom, and you know how these people are.”

“The same social demotivation, the same time that I live in prison, makes me awaken other interests. I decide not to fall prisoner for trying to live comfortably, and I begin to address political orientation on how to change my life and how to face a government that has destabilized me emotionally and has deteriorated my life for trying to survive.”

“What can happen to me is that I'll go to prison for the non-payment of a fine because it is a mechanism that they use to unjustly take you to prison. Because the participation of the community in the work that the individuals have been doing in Cuba to denounce all these atrocities that the government has been committing on the population, is growing. And since people are tired of being lied to, because the official press all it does, is omitting the true need that the people of Cuba are experiencing. And the independent press is gaining more space every day within the population and the people see it as a mechanism to unmask the lie that the government has been carrying out with the people of Cuba.”