“I think I told them one day, that I will never stop and one day I will have the proof that they murdered my son on the motorcycle. They knew where my son was, so they could act against me. There was a car on the same road as my son, with a murderer. They threw the car up his motorcycle and forced him to jump from the motorcycle, but he hit himself against a contention, against a pole. My son was killed in an accident, he was only 22 years old and he also lost his eye. They ´hunt´ opponents like that, they catch them, and then they kidnap them. My colleagues went out there to check while I was burying my son. I don't have the proof yet, but Laura and Paya Sardíñas [independent politicians who were killed in a car accident] and others were also killed like that. There exist much more crimes we know about. They imprisoned Zapata [Orlando Tamayo Zapata died during the hunger strike], Voltel and others. That is why I accuse the Cuban state from killing my son in an alleged accident, in order to give me a lesson because of my activities I had that time.”
“Well, let me explain why in the streets. We understand, we think, like everyone else, that there is no way how to end the dictatorship inside our houses, if we are in the house, nothing would change, and everything stays the same. Instead of that, we are peacefully demonstrating with signs, where is written, what we request and want for Cuba. We protest in the central places, downtown or bus stations, so the people are seeing that there exists restriction on freedom, that you can fight for your rights and freedoms, although it has not happened many times. It represents a message to the people of Cuba, and it is a political challenge that we have created to the regime. We are sending a message to the Cuban Government, that we are peaceful, but we are not afraid of them! We demonstrate in front of governmental institutions, on public places and the streets. One day the Cubans will wake up and we will see, if people are with us and if they join us on our protest - and that day there will be freedom for everybody.”
“The life of a political prisoner is much more difficult than being common prisoner. Why is that? Because the political police are above the state police and state police oversees all prison institutions in the country. For that reason, everything they command the jailers to do, if it is the head of the unit or the key keeper, they are obligated to process the order. Everything that the police orders to the guards, they do it. Either sending common prisoners to beat political prisoners, to steal our belongings, even stabbing of the political prisoners, forcing us to lose our principles. They shout: ´Hey, they send me to accompany you.´ They have told me, that they have groups with knives inside the prison. The police know it, but it corresponds to their interest, and the interest of the regime.”
“Well, here in Cuba we stayed eight siblings. In the year 1980 there was a critical situation at the Peruvian Embassy. Two of my brothers, who were minors and were participating on the obligatory military service – the first one Alberto Prieto Blanco, who had not even sworn the flag yet and the other one Oswaldo Prieto Blanco. They were imprisoned in the military jail, because a big thing happened, when one hundred seventy militants entered to the Peruvian Embassy and all of them were sanctioned for five years of deprivation of the liberty. But there is one more thing, which I am going to comment in this testimony, my mother, who achieved to escape from this dictatorship. At that time, my uncle was already in the United States of America, since the beginning of the Revolution in 1959, receiving my sisters, my brothers-in-law and my little nephews as refugees. There was a huge list of Cubans, who emigrated to the USA as refugees. And those my brothers, Alberto and Oswaldo, never left Cuba.”
Hugo Damián Prieto Blanco was born on September 27, 1966, in Havana as the thirteenth son of his parents. His father, a supporter of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, died when Hugo was five years old. Hugo’s family tried to emigrate in 1980 to the United States [USA], but only six sisters were successful. Hugo and his brothers became dissidents through the organization, “Human Rights Committee” [Comité Cubano Pro Derechos Humanos]. His counterrevolutionary activities landed Hugo into prison five times, including “El Combinado” in Guantanamo. Hugo is the founder of the “Orlando Zapata Tamayo Civic Action Front” movement [Frente de Acción Cívica Orlando Zapata Tamayo] and participates in several social projects in the marginal areas among Cuba, helping the Cuban people with material questions, but also with education and citizen awareness. Hugo lives with his second wife and stepchildren in Havana. Most of his family resides in the United States.
