“I find out, that I was a prisoner of conscience recognized by ‘Amnesty International’ in 2012, we are already talking about 2012. How many years ago? ‘It’s going to be nine years now.’ I found out about that through the organization. ‘How did they inform you?’ Well, I felt grateful and more than grateful, I would like to thank to ‘Amnesty International’ immensely, as I said on several occasions already, I feel immensely grateful that ‘Amnesty International’ has recognized me as a prisoner of conscience for having fought for a justice and democracy in Cuba. God gave me the right to be born. And I, at this moment, I ask all human beings in the world, wherever you see an injustice, fight it.”
“One political prisoner, whom I approached in the jail during my second sentence, showed me, that above all, we must love our flag, we must love our national anthem, and we must love our country. Our country does not belong to Fidel, nor does belong to Raúl, or to anyone who wants to appropriate it. And if any of them feels like he is the owner of this country, he should show me the property of this country, the same Canel [President of the Republic of Cuba since April 2018].”
“When they imprisoned me, the prison board, well especially the re-educator Mickey, who was a lawyer and who had studied in the Soviet Union, wanted me to snitch, to be a rat. To inform them who takes pills or drugs, who seduced whose wife, what are the prisoners planning and so on. I told him that I was not a cederista [Member of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR)], I have never been interested in someone else’s life. And I told him that I did not agree with that.”
Rafael Matos Montes de Oca was born in 1959 in Guantanamo, Cuba. After the nationalization of the family restaurant by the Cuban Government in the late 1970s, Rafael’s family was left without any financial resources. Thus, necessity brought him to the “grey economy,” which led to five-year imprisonment. When he was imprisoned again in 1990, he joined other political prisoners in their interest in human rights. When he was released in 1999, he joined the “Movement 30 November - Frank País” [Movimiento 30 de noviembre Frank País] and later the “Resistance and Democracy Group of the Guantanamo province” [Grupo Resistencia y Democracia de la provincia de Guantánamo] affiliated to the “Patriotic Union of Cuba” [Unión Patriótica de Cuba]. Because of his activities, he has been arrested and imprisoned on several occasions. In 2012 he was recognized as a prisoner of conscience by “Amnesty International.” He is a member of the Catholic Church, resides in Guantanamo, and persists in his goal to live in a democratic Cuba.
