Diario de Normando Hernández González
The prisoner knows where he stands, but not where he lies. This prison sentence is a textbook example of that since I am taken (March 2003). This Friday, September 14, 2007, I stood up at Detachment 3 of the Kilo 7 Provincial Prison, located in the province of Camaguey. After 9 hours inside a cage car, I find out that I am in the Military Hospital Carlos J. Finlay, in Havana City, more than 500 kilometers from my homeland, where I was transferred for the critical state of my health. Immediately, the guards want to strip me of my belongings, but with strong protests I manage to keep the pajamas, sheets and some light food. The state security officer who harasses me and calls himself Jaime, tells me that I will be entitled, while in the hospital, to a visit every Wednesday after 2 pm, and to speak on the phone every Saturdays from 10 am; and warns me that these rights are only for family members. It also provides me with a phone so that talk to my wife and fill her in. When I called Yarai (my wife), she was already aware that I had been transferred, but did not know specifically where. Yaraí tells me that she had communicated with Major Salgado, head of the Department of confrontation of State Security in Camaguey, and that this officer assured her that I will be at the hospital for another 15 days as I was transferred just to get a medical check-up. This soldier didn't specify to my wife what hospital I was in either. They put me in a small room, in a narrow cubicle next to Rolando and Guacio, two men who are being imprisoned for alleged economic crimes. We are three people in a room with four beds and a tiny bathroom. The free space that we have is a corridor, which is between the beds and leads to the door, which is a lockable gate. The meeting with the doctor didn’t wait upon arrival. I am taken to an air-conditioned office located in front of the room where I am confined. I am treated by a doctor named Jose Eduardo. He is a specialist in Internal Medicine. I have 13 kilograms per below my normal weight, I mean, I'm weighing 55 kilograms. The guards, who are from State Security, give me a number to communicate with me. Now my name is not Normando Hernández González, but 242627. I just lost my identity. I just have to keep praying. Whatever God wants!