“The medical care in the prison was primarily far away from the prison. I was in the same penal area, but a little far away. To get there, you had to practically beg the guards. To be taken to a medical assistance, because of a pain or something, at least that was my case - I had two months, a terrible toothache, it hurt, later it stopped and then it hurt again. At the doctor, there was never anything to applicate on my tooth. Every time they saw me, well the few times I managed to get there, there was nothing to get into that tooth, because they didn't heal the tooth, they try to rip it out. I had to solve it by myself and I had to use a wild method, as we say. I had to heat a nail and put it on my nerve to relieve this toothache, because no one could stand it, it was not relieved by anything, by pills or anything like that. Why? Because there wasn't nothing at the doctor´s office, there were no resources, they didn't have anaesthesia, they didn't have anything to pull my tooth out.”
“These ´benefits´ I am describing, were common ones in the Combined prison in Guantánamo. For example it was two months of reduction of the penalty; or the ´minimum´, which is a process for the prisoners, the process of joining the society, which means to work in the camp, or at the end their penalty is less years. They work in the camp and have adjustments of the probation time. At that time when I was sentenced to the prison, in 2006, they didn't give provide these benefits to prisoners with illegal exit, they called it with a special word - prioritized. The illegal exit at that time was like a prioritized crime. There was no benefit for those. We had no right to anything, compared to murders, crimes connected with murder, with drugs or assaults.”
“Alcoholism exists, in the past it existed a lot too, and people were drinking really bad drinks, those weren't good drinks, it was bad drink, they were all homemade. At least in my neighbourhood, young people were drinking alcohol produced by themselves. And I have friends who still continue with that, they spend weeks drinking alcohol, they have no purpose in their life, no future, it's over for them. If there is no alcohol, there is nothing. In those times you could see that a lot [when was Yunier released from the prison in 2010]. There were groups of young people drinking all the time, and all that generated violence and need, much need.”
“This lack I am talking you about, involves a lot of violence, because many things that we young people wanted to have, we could not have. That´s where the violence begins. We were going to some places, we were practically having fun, young people already had another idea - for them it was common to walk with a knife, they already had another mentality of violence, to fight with other guys, within aggressive groups, vandal groups between them. When you wanted to go out, sometimes you just could not, when I wanted to go out, I had to be somewhere far away, to be far away from everybody, or apart, because if you were close to some group, you could get seriously injured. And that is what you could observe in all the neighbourhoods, on the street, you could see that at night or even in the afternoon. During the day light I could not walk on the street, because I could be attacked by anyone. It is not correct it should not be like that. Those are very difficult situations.”
Yunier Guerra Samón was born on October 10, 1983, in Guantánamo in a marginal neighborhood. When he was 15 years old, he took courses in automotive mechanics. However, he never dedicated himself to this work. From 2002 to 2003, he took part in obligatory military service as a guard at the Havana prison called “1580.” Because of the complexity of youth, widespread violence, lack of motivation to work, alcoholism, and lack of a promising future in the province of Guantánamo, in 2006, he decided to leave the country. He tried to escape through the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, but his attempt failed, and he was sentenced to three years and eight months in “The Combined of Guantánamo” [El Combinado de Guantánamo] prison. When he left the prison, he joined the political party opposing the communist regime - “Democratic Party November 30th Frank País” [Partido Democrático 30 de noviembre Frank País] and participates in anti-government marches and human rights debates in Cuba. He is single and lives in Guantánamo.
