From: aforum@moose.uvm.edu (autonome forum)
Subject: AF/ATS: Spanish political prisoner needs solidarity
Organization: University of Vermont -- Division of EMBA Computer Facility
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 04:10:44 GMT

subject: Spanish political prisoner needs solidarity
posted by: AF/ATS
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	FREEDOM FOR JUAN MANUEL PEREZ HERNANDEZ!

About one year ago, prisoners from the PCE(r) [Spanish Communist Party - 
reconstituted] and GRAPO [1st of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups] ended
their 435-day hunger-strike in Spanish prisons. By means of this life and death
struggle against the state, the prisoners sought to be regrouped inside one
prison.
	
After 6 months, Jose Sevillano died, and several other prisoners were in 
serious condition. The murderous policies of the PSOE [Spain's ruling social
democrats], including hand-cuffing the prisoners to beds in order to force-feed
them, inflicted great physical and psychological injury upon the prisoners.
	
Several doctors and human rights organizations, including the Red Cross,
who visited the prisoners during the hunger-stike, verified these conditions.
	
But this did not deter the PSOE from its strategy of keeping the prisoners 
barely alive so that they would be permanently injured and eventually abandon
their struggle.
	
The prisoners realized this, but persevered, even though death or injury
would surely result from the hunger-strike. Today, many of the prisoners are
confined to wheel-chairs and others have to have injection-feeding since their
stomachs cannot digest normal food. Others have severe muscle damage.
	
But the PSOE did not achieve its goal. Even after the hunger-stike had ended,
reports sent from inside the prison were filled with courage and the deter-
mination to put forth further resistance for a better future, despite the 
risks to them as individuals.
	
Juan Manuel Perez Hernandez, a GRAPO prisoner, suffered many heart-attacks
during the hunger-strike, and as a result now has permanent brain damage. His 
situation is so severe, that Balmon, a PCE(r) prisoner, has written us a 
letter calling for an urgent appeal to get Juan Manuel released from prison:

"I was with Juan Manuel and his doctor at the medical ward. The doctor told me
Juan Manuel had spent the night outside in the ambulance; they only discovered
that this morning at 8am when the prisoners were counted.

"The doctor told me the same thing that the other prisoners living with Juan
have said, namely that he suffers from disorientation. He has trouble 
communicating and spends most of the day in bed. He doesn't write, and 
doesn't even read the letters sent to him. But the doctor says that there's no 
physical reason for his mood swings from euphoria, depression, and 
aggressiveness.

"It shocked me to see him lying there in the hospital bed with a blank stare. He
didn't even have a radio by his bed, because the doctors were afraid they'd find
him hung in the morning. In the hospital, they say he's OK, because they don't
do anything for him. Here in Meco, they don't let him out among the prisoners,
because they say he can't lead a 'normal' life. In the hospital, he is alone,
isolated in his bed without diversions, which he doesn't want anyway. I think
he's going over something inside his head, and this is making his situation 
worse.

"I am furious about this! We must raise hell to get him released! That is our
humanitarian duty of solidarity!

"The warmth of his daughter and his family could help him to lead a normal life
again and help prevent his illness from worsening. But the longer he remains in
prison, the more consciousness he loses.

"After all of his superhuman struggle, something finally broke in this man. Some
kind of rage or sense of powerlessness, some pain in the soul. Only with great
effort did I hold back my tears for this man. Something has to be done before 
he is completely destroyed. I am convinved of this, and I implore you all that 
this is URGENT!

"Comrades, we cannot abandon this prisoner. We cannot allow Manuel to collapse
entirely. We have to do something, get publicity, send telegrams and letters to
the justice ministry, demand freedom for Juan Manuel Perez Hernandez, and get
him away from the grasps of the fascist beast. That is our humanitary duty of
solidarity."

SEND LETTERS DEMANDING THE RELEASE OF JUAN MANUEL PEREZ HERNANDEZ TO:

	SR. Ministro de Justicia
	c/San Bernando, 45
	28015 Madrid
	SPAIN

[from Interim #199]

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