Laida Arcia Carro

“To support dissidents meant to be in close contact with human suffering. I was recording information about beatings and deaths. It was difficult to deal with family members of these dissidents. They did not want their neighbours to be in such a situation, and the State Security was requesting that the relatives persuade the dissidents and activists to leave activities to stop fighting for freedom, that it was against their will.”

“I am proud to speak of my uncle as a hero, a true Cuban who fought and died for his homeland with his head up. But his execution was terrible... he was killed at night instead of continuing the trial the next day. They just shot him. My mother, my uncle - her younger brother, when they arrived the next day at the court to be continued, the soldier informed them, "Well, do you see that pile of clay over there? There he was. That was just horrific. My grandmother then suffered from health problems for the rest of her life. Her son was shot in the middle of the night when the trial was to continue the next morning. Of course, it was all planned. I remember my mother came from Santa Clara to Havana... I was ten years old... and she didn't tell me exactly what happened. I didn't know where my cousins were. They always lived in the province outside Havana, so I didn't know what happened. However, I noticed that my mother passed out. I was startled and I knew something terrible had happened. She didn't tell me anything. But this story was not exceptional in Cuba. It is the story of the Cuban people. At the beginning of everything they had to assassinate thousands of people so that this absolute government continued for the next 60 years.”