WASHINGTON -- Four former political prisoners from Cuba came to Capitol Hill
Wednesday to remind congressional staffers of the human consequences of
rights abuses in Cuba.

``Political prisoners are isolated from the world, and no one hears about them, or
the torture and beatings,'' said Angel Cuadra, an activist and poet who spent 10
years in prison before he was allowed to leave Cuba in 1985 at the request of
Sweden.

Ana Lazara Rodriguez, who spent 19 years in prison, described mental torture,
continuous humiliation and solitary confinement for days when she had ``nothing
at all.''

Alberto Grau Sierra and Carmen Arias also attended the luncheon organized by
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, who praised the four as ``the survivors of
Castro's gulag.''
 

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald