8 March 1998
To honourable men and women of the free world:
Cuban women have joined together to compose a petition for aid for Cuban women prisoners of conscience who have not been freed in this pardon orchestrated by the government of Fidel Castro. It has not been an act of clemency nor of good will, but an attempt to curry favour as a head of state, the usual policy of the Cuban government towards its hostages who are, have always been and will always be prisoners of conscience. It is an embarrassment that less than two years from the new millennium, Cuba houses in its jails more than a hundred thousand prisoners and many more in its interrogation facilities. Proportionally the island's prison population is one of the largest of Latin America, but the most criminal of all is the humiliating and merciless treatment to which Cuban prisoners are subjected, much more so when they are political prisoners. Only a few sisters have been freed, with more than 40 Cuban women continuing unjust sentences in this manipulative game. In the face of such injustice and ignominy, we want to unite our voices as women fighters for human rights to let the world know of the viciousness and indignity of the treatment of Cuban women prisoners. We want all free citizens to unite their voices in favour of these suffering women.
Signed,