These prisoners must live in total isolation for a whole year. Afterwards they can receive one 30-minute visit every month, but only from immediate family members. They are confined to their small cells for all but half an hour each day. They are often denied medical treatment. The food is horrible - it is often rotten and the guards sometimes mix in glass, rats or cockroaches.
Prisoners only receive two liters of water per day for bathing, washing and drinking.
Women prisoners also have to endure sexual assaults and intimidation. On Dec. 16, the day before the MRTA's occupation action, MRTA prisoners at Miguel Castro Castro prison led a hunger strike of over 1,000 prisoners protesting prison conditions. Everyone on the left should support the MRTA's demands for freedom for all political prisoners and for an end to neo-liberalism, regardless of how people see the MRTA or this particular action. Our focus includes a wide variety of material, including political prisoners, national liberation struggles, armed communist resistance, anti-fascism, the fight against patriarchy, and more. We regularly publish our writings, research, and translation materials in our magazine and bulletins called Arm The Spirit.