Public Records Office / Public Library
Research register
Mazorra: political prisoners’ accounts and the Cuban record
Brown & Lago documented 27–31 dissidents (sources differ) diagnosed with conditions such as "apathy toward socialism"; nurse Heriberto Mederos named by ten victims
Read each occurrence in context. Evidence labels below are the labels recorded by the source edition; importing a row does not independently verify it.
What the record says
Worldwide register by region (Batch 2) · Batch 4
- Country / period
- Cuba, 1963–1980s
- Mechanism
- State Security interrogation (Villa Marista) followed by forensic-ward confinement at Havana Psychiatric Hospital (Mazorra) and Gustavo Machín (Santiago); electroshock
- What is documented
- Brown & Lago documented 27–31 dissidents (sources differ) diagnosed with conditions such as "apathy toward socialism"; nurse Heriberto Mederos named by ten victims
- Finding or status
- Book-length investigation (Freedom House, 1991); JUDICIAL FINDING: a US federal jury convicted Mederos \[corrected, Batch 18/D03: the offence was unlawful procurement of naturalization through false statements about persecution and Party membership; he died before sentencing; the verdict's necessary findings on electroshock are a LEAD — original wording follows\] in 2002 of lying to immigration officials by denying he administered electroshock to political prisoners (Cubanet; Seattle Times, 1992; JAAPL review)
- Contrary evidence / limits
- Amnesty's researcher in 1992: no "generalized practice" found, though pressure on certain prisoners "could have been used"; Cuban authorities refused APA access to Mazorra
- Label
- VERIFIED with DISPUTED scale
Linked patterns
No pattern link assigned yet.
Linked corrections
| 1963-CU-MAZORRA | Cuba, 1963–1980s | State Security interrogation (Villa Marista) followed by forensic-ward confinement at Havana Psychiatric Hospital (Mazorra) and Gustavo Machín (Santiago); electroshock | Brown & Lago documented 27–31 dissidents (sources differ) diagnosed with conditions such as "apathy toward socialism"; nurse Heriberto Mederos named by ten victims | Book-length investigation (Freedom House, 1991); JUDICIAL FINDING: a US federal jury convicted Mederos \[corrected, Batch 18/D03: the offence was unlawful procurement of naturalization through false statements about persecution and Party membership; he died before sentencing; the verdict's necessary findings on electroshock are a LEAD — original wording follows\] in 2002 of lying to immigration officials by denying he administered electroshock to political prisoners (Cubanet; Seattle Times, 1992; JAAPL review) | Amnesty's researcher in 1992: no "generalized practice" found, though pressure on certain prisoners "could have been used"; Cuban authorities refused APA access to Mazorra | VERIFIED with DISPUTED scale |
Reference and provenance
1963-CU-MAZORRA