On April 30, 2005, Mrs. Gloria Amaya González, mother of the Sigler Amaya brothers, Cuban prisoners of conscience, members of the Alternative Option Movement in Matanzas, Cuba, sent the following open letter to Mrs. Magalys Llort, mother of Fernando González Llort, convicted as a spy in 2001 and imprisoned in the United States.
Mrs. Magalys Llort,
Havana
Señora:
I understand that your son is allowed 35 hours of visitation per month in the United States. Did you know that I am only allowed one hour per month, that sometimes I have had to wait for over tree hours in the sun in my wheelchair and that even sometimes I have been denied the visit because I had pinned their pictures to my chest?
Did you know, that we mothers, in order to visit our sons have to travel in trucks for over two days carrying heavy bags of food so that they won’t starve to death, something that your son does not need? Do you know that we, mothers, have to try to sleep anywhere the night advances in those long trips? Do you know that we are subjected to a personal search when we visit them in addition to the metal detectors and that some of us have been humiliated and forced to remove our clothes?
Señora. You are constantly traveling inside and outside Cuba, with all expenses covered by public funds in order to campaign on behalf of your son. You are offered all sorts conveniences and you are constantly shown on Cuban television. We, the mothers of political prisoners are repressed and ostracized. The most important thing, however, is that your son is guilty and mine are innocent.
Señora Magalys. I know perfectly well the pain that a mother feels when she has a son in jail. I am 74 years old, am sick and have had three sons jailed at the same time in different provinces. I pray to God that one day no mother will have to suffer because of incarcerated children. I hope you understand my reaction as a Cuban mother.
Signed,
Gloria Amaya González
Mother of Miguel, Ariel and Guido Sigler Amaya
Prisoners of Conscience