Four dissidents freed this week after five years in inhumane conditions in a Cuban prison have revealed the dark side of Fidel Castro’s regime.
The four - José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, Omar Pernet Hernández, Alejandro González and Pedro Pablo Álvarez - described regular beatings, humiliation and arbitrary punishment with long periods of solitary confinement in cramped cells with cement beds.
They said they were deprived of food and water in conditions which resembled "a desert".
Arriving in Spain to be reunited with their families, they exposed the routine abuse of political prisoners which marked Castro’s five decades in power.
The four were part of a group of 75 dissidents who were jailed in 2003 by Castro’s regime in a move which caused an international outcry. The official reason given for their release was "health reasons".
But behind the scenes pressure from the Spanish Government on Havana is believed to have been the key to setting free the long-term opposition activists, who all have relatives in Spain.
Mr Castillo, 50, a journalist who wrote articles critical of the regime, told The Sunday Telegraph: "It was terrible. It was like being in a desert in which sometimes there is no water, there is no food, you are tortured and you are abused.
"This was not torture in the textbook way with electric prods, but it was cruel and degrading. They would beat you for no reason even when you were in hospital.
"At other times they would search you for no reason, stripping you bare and humiliating you. There was one particular commander at a jail in Santa Clara who seemed to take delight in handing out beatings to the prisoners."
Mr Castillo, who claims he was denied proper medical aid for diabetes and heart problems, added: "We are nothing more than a reflection of the human cost of the fight being waged by the Cuban people."
While the dissidents tasted freedom, 58 of the original 75 jailed for long terms in 2003 are still behind bars.
It is estimated another 250 political prisoners languish in Cuban prisons. Mr Castillo was not hopeful that the departure of El Comandante from the helm of power would bring great changes.
"Nothing will change with the resignation of Castro. He will still be manipulating things behind the scenes," he said.
"His resignation could be a small step but I have my reservations. We were only released because (Castro) wants to clean up his image as a human rights violator. He is still present. He is a ghost governing the country."
Omar Pernet, a steel worker also in his fifties, was jailed for being an opposition activist, suffered an accident while being moved from one jail to another in 2004.
He also suffered lung problems in jail, a broken leg, a broken collar bone.
He said he was kept in solitary confinement in a cell measuring four metres square with a cement bed.
In all, he has spent 21 years behind bars for opposing the regime. Mr Pernet was jailed for 20 years after being accused of aiding the US secret services - a charge he says was trumped up.
In a statement, Amnesty International called the release of the four a "positive step" but called on Raul Castro, who has been Cuba’s acting president since his brother, Fidel, fell ill in 2006, to also release all other political prisoners held by the regime.
