“Regarding the situations I’ve had to face at certain times with Cuban intelligence and counterintelligence agencies, upon seeing my firm position as to not give in over those almost twelve years, they used a method that was murderous, vile, and atrocious against me. When I was almost finished serving my 12-years sentence, they had me in a cell, but I take medication. I am a person who is dependent [on medication] and they held me in a punishment cell, isolated in Holguín prison. What does the Cuban intelligence and counterintelligence agency do to a man who is in the position I was in and was in for so many years and does not yield in any way? A man who is already affected, because he has been taking his medication for so many years, so let’s just take his medication away from him. As the days pass, his corporal dynamics system will begin to transform his brain functioning and he will begin to behave like a beast, not like a rational man, which, thank God, did not happen to me. And then, let’s transfer him to another prison and take him, amidst this state of confusion that he does not understand, as he is a beast, to where they will be waiting to sexually abuse him. This is what they did to me.”
“A man, without having had the freedom since 1959 to attain social fulfillment (and when I say ‘man’, I am referring to both terms, man and woman), feels like a wretch. Because a man is not like a pig. You throw a pig in a sty, give it plenty of food, and the pig is quite happy. It doesn’t reason, nor does it have free will. A man without the possibility of experiencing his fundamental rights across various aspects of life, a man who cannot say ‘I am walking with my feet on the ground’, it is sad to recognize that this man knows for sure, even if he is the humblest man, or a field worker… because sometimes there are people who… Well, certain field workers used to have a lower level of schooling. However, those men at that time, who did not have any level of education, I dare say, were more talented and knew how to express themselves better than people who, if measured from one point of view, behaved like intellectuals.”
Julio César Morales González was born on October 23rd, 1970 in the Cuban province of Holguín as the oldest of three brothers. He completed his studies up to the eighth grade, five years of which he spent studying in a Special School as his coefficient did not match the educational standard. Because of this, he was primarily self-educated, particularly in literature, as he considers himself a poetry enthusiast. As he lacked a specific profession, he worked in various agricultural sectors and private security. In 1987, he was sentenced to a year in prison for disobedience, and in 1993, he was imprisoned in Holguín prison for alleged sabotage, becoming the youngest of 71 political prisoners held in Holguín at that time. For over 12 years, Julio César endured torture, beatings, medical mistreatment depriving him of essential psychiatric medications crucial for his mental functioning, and even sexual abuse. Today, he feels that Cuba is undergoing a metamorphosis, which, in his opinion, is progressing slower than he would desire. Nevertheless, he does not lose hope that change will come.
