78-07-B6

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Castro's Prisons

Transcript While American businessmen continue to visit Cuba dreaming of trade deals to come, one has recently returned from a 14 year Cuban visit. His dream was a nightmare, as he described it to a group of reporters. Franc Emmick had a successful business in pre-Castro Cuba. Then, when the United States severed relations with the new government, he closed down his operation. Five militiamen seized him, beat him and threw him in the ocean for dead. He was alive, however, and made his way to the Swiss Embassy. A Swiss official took him to the airport, but he was refused permission to leave Cuba. He was subsequently charged with being a C.I.A. agent. (This allegation, incidentally, has never been substantiated by any evidence.) Nevertheless, he was thrown into a dark, refrigerated room where, stripped to his underwear, he stayed for five months, sleeping on the bare floor. Removed from there, he was told his sentence was death and transferred to a dungeon where he spent 9 months during which time 159 of his fellow inmates were executed. Then he was given a full-dress trial with Geneva observers and western correspondents present. Still charged with being a U.S. agent, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. For six years he was in Las Cabannas fortress where approximately 5,000 men were crammed into a building built for 500. There were no sanitary facilities and little medical attention. In 1970 he was assigned to another prison where conditions were better, but in spite of a known history of heart trouble he was required to climb 40 stairs three times a day. And, as could be expected he had a heart attack that almost caused his death. Two years later he was back in Las Cabannas where conditions had not improved. It was here that he had his second heart attack. He waited a week for hospitalization. In December of 1977 he was transferred to a new prison which looked modern and beautiful on the outside but on the inside was a boiler in summer and a freezer in winter. The sewage from the fourth floor leaked through to the first floor. By now, however, treatment was better because the Cubans thought they could make a deal with the new administration in Washington. This last January a visiting Congressman interviewed him and obtained his release. He had spent 14 years and three months in Castro's Gulag. He says there are four American businessmen still there. The morning after his lunch with the reporters one of the Congressmen who had arranged his release phoned him and tore him apart for talking about his experiences. They he asked, "Are you going to keep your mouth shut?" Emmick quietly answered, "No. I no longer will be intimidated. I am now free and in America." God bless America. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 78-07-B6 Production Date 05/15/1978 Book/Page RPtV-301 Audio Youtube? No
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