• ALL experts on the issue confirm it: the U.S. prison system is one of the most repressive in the world, with an abundance of techniques and instruments for maintaining inmates in a permanent state of complete subordination.

Lockdown, commonly used in all correction facilities, is one of the most degrading punishments meted out to the five cuban anti-terrorist fighters by the same government that showed the world its concept of prisoner rights in abu ghraib and guantanamo.

Elizabeth Palmeiro is the wife of one of the five, Ramón Labañino, who is incarcerated in the maximum security federal prison of Beaumont, Texas. She explains that this lockdown is routinely used in the prisons of the country that portrays itself as a champion of human rights in the world.

"The so-called lockdowns are the form of mass punishment most used by prison authorities, at least where ramón is," she says. "They consist of prisoners being confined to their cells for an indefinite period, during which they are not allowed to do any of their normal everyday activities.

"Suddenly, because of an incident that may occur somewhere in the prison, they take away almost all daily activities from all the prisoners, sometimes thousands of them.

"When there is a discipline problem in the prison, which is almost always a question of major fights among the different gangs or serious aggression against a prisoner or guard, the immediate response is to punish all the prisoners, no matter whether or not they are involved in the issue or if the incident occurred in another unit," she said. "Prisons are divided into units, and if they are any problems, they punish all the units."

It is an absurd regulation in a brutal system, where the use of pepper spray is also common, where the guards patrol with rifles and where "pacifying" drugs are administered to numerous prisoners suffering from mental illness. The prison guards are under no obligation to inform the prisoners, and the prisoners do not have the right to know why they are being punished.

Out of the blue, they are prohibited all recreational activities, and even hygiene. All of their communication with the outside is blocked: their correspondence is limited, family visits are cancelled, no phone calls are allowed, and the jail becomes a bunker to which nobody has access except the prison guards.

"We’ve spent up to five weeks without hearing anything from him"

Stemming from the pure cruelty with which Bush has surrounded the case of the Cubans, who were convicted of espionage they never committed in a frame-up trial held in the midst of the Miami mafia, Ramón Labañino, like his comrades, was sent to a maximum-security prison full of inmates convicted of extremely violent crimes.

"Since Ramón arrived at the Beaumont federal prison in Texas, there have been dozens of lockdowns. It is considered to be one of the most violent and dangerous in the system. People say the prisoners there are the most dangerous, transferred from other prisons where they have committed serious offenses. They are held there as punishment before being sent to Florence maximum-security prison, which is the worst in terms of permanent punishment," Elizabeth explains.

She and her daughters, Ailí, Laura and Lizbeth, are also victims of these collective violations of prisoner rights, and they have experienced many days of anguish.

"During these punishments that ramón has suffered without even knowing what happened or how, we have spent up to five weeks without hearing anything from him, either letters or phone calls," Elizabeth recalled.

"When Ramón is finally able to communicate with us, he recounts every detail of the long days of being locked up in his small cell. Without using a complaining tone, he tells me that the food consists of small portions of cold ‘snacks’ and tiny cups of juice or liquid for breakfast," elizabeth says. "They go hungry during those lockdowns."

The prisoners are locked up for as long as the authorities want in order to clear up the situation presented and send the guilty parties to the "hole" — the punishment cell, also a common feature in the U.S. Prison system.

"This is very paradoxical, because the prison is full of cameras that watch the prisoners’ every move, and there are seven watchtowers, all extremely high, where the entire perimeter is overseen, but that’s how things are. They lock them all up, even if the problem is concentrated in just one area; they punish everyone."

Reactions by the prisoners tend to be violent.

"The ones who didn’t do anything are upset about being unjustly punished, and others are bothered by the fact that others caused the problem, and so it goes in a vicious circle; one lockdown can lead to others as soon as the first one is over."

That has been the case with Ramón. A two-week lockdown in his prison will end, and 10 days later, he is under another two-week lockdown, and that can occur over and over.

"This measure is taken by prison authorities, and when they lift it, it is not completely or immediately, but gradually. First, they have the right to come out of their cells for one or two hours per day to take showers; then they are given access to their letters and five-minute phone calls. Then they are allowed to be outside of their cells for more and more time. Finally, after about 10 days, they can have family visits, the last privilege to be restored. This is as long as there are no other problems and they are not placed under total lockdown of another week or two."

For the families, as is the case with the Cuban five, who are thousands of kilometers away from the prison, the effect is tragic.

"In the case of Ramón, our last two visits were affected by these lockdowns: mine with my youngest daughters in May 2006, and then his oldest daughter in February 2008. The last one was the first family visit that Ramón had had in a year and a half! But a lockdown was ordered right when Ailí arrived, and she had to spend the entire four weeks covered by the 30-day visa we are given without being able to visit him once. It was the longest lockdown I remember them having, five weeks. It was terrible for all of us, but especially for Ramón, who hasn’t had a family visit in almost two years."

TEN YEARS OF BLACKMAIL AND MISTREATMENT

From the first day of their arrest, on September 12, 1998, when FBI special agent Héctor Pesquera scurried to report the detention of the "spies" to Cuban-American congress members Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart, the five have been subjected to a hellish series of blackmail attempts, violating all prison regulations and international agreements against torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

For 17 months the FBI kept René González, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino and Fernando González in solitary confinement.

Now, almost 10 years later, they remain locked up out of pure cruelty in five different prisons spread across the immense territory of the United States. Contact with their families is either prohibited or very limited.

Meanwhile, the most dangerous terrorist on the continent, Luis Posada Carriles, is not only free to walk the streets of Miami, but is also participating in a veritable promotion tour of terror in an operation steered by the CIA. In contrast, five Cubans who dedicated themselves to monitoring such activities are being subjected to mistreatment and abuse, with lockdowns only one of the most visible examples. •

Colloqium in the French Senate

• A colloquium was organized in the French Senate on the issue of human rights, law and the Miami 5, in the context of the Cuban anti-terrorists imprisoned in the United States for close to 10 years.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in Paris 60 years ago, was the basis of discussions in the Médicis Salon of the Luxembourg Palace, involving representatives from 17 countries. •

Recuad 2

* More than 300 committees in defense of the Five have been set up in 100 countries.

* The UN Human Rights Commission’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions stated on May 27, 2005 that the arrest of the five Cubans was arbitrary and asked Bush to resolve the situation.

* Nine Nobel Prize winners have called on the United States to immediately release the Five.

* More than 6,000 public figures from all over the world have signed an open letter to the U.S. Attorney General demanding their freedom.

• * more than 300 defense committees for the cuban five have been organized in 100 countries around the world.

* the working group on arbitrary detention, under the united nations human rights commission, declared on may 27, 2005 that the arrest of the cuban five was arbitrary, and asked bush to "resolve the situation."

* nine nobel laureates have demanded the immediate release of the cuban five.