U.S. WRITER SPENDS 3 MONTHS IN CUBAN JAIL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000100110027-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 28, 2001
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: April 30, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 20 02 /i~trTO 6-i~DP74B00415R000100110027-6
.~. writer S"-ends` 3 Months
By Teri Shaw 't"
washincton Post Staff Writer '
=Vast 'Christmas Day,
yuban authorities 'arrested..
Frank McDonald, a 30-year-
old American writer who
had spent the previous
seven months as a guest lec-
turer at the University of
Havana, and charged him
with spying. McDonald was
told that he faced a possible
30-year prison sentence.
A Caribbean specialist,
McDonald had spent two
months in Cuba the pre-
vious year and written arti-
cles about the country
under a fellowship. During
that earlier stay, he had in-
tervlewed many Cubans
wJth the aim of writing a
book contrasting Cuba with
the rest of the Caribbean
and assessing U.S. influence
in the region.
McDonald said he believes
that he was detained be-
cause the Cuban Department
of State , Security became
suspicious of his Informa-
tion-gathering activities, and
that he was eventually re-
leased-after three months
in solitary confinement-=he-
cause investigations turned
up no evidence that he was
e spy.
During his months in pris-
on, he said, "I had to be-,
'lieve the truth would free'
-me. I really believed the
revolution would make a
fair judgment. I think I was
,dealt with in a just way."
The charge of spying was
.dropped before his release,
McDonald said, but he was
deported and his notes were
.confiscated because, he was
told, he had violated'a ban
on "socio-political studies."
A State Department offi-
.cial familiar with the cases
of Americans who have got-
ten . into trouble in Cuba
said ' he knew of no other
case like McDonalcl's-that
is, of a person who entered
with a Cuban visa and who
later was arrested.
The official said that nine
tempted invasion of the is-
land, are presently in jail in
Cuba. There are also six
North Americans convicted
of narcotics offenses and an
unknown number of hijack-
He added that efforts had
been ` made, through the
Swiss embassy, which han-
dles U.S. affairs in Cuba, to
locate McDonald while he
was in prison. The efforts
were fruitless until the day
after McDonald was re-
efs in Cuban jails, he said.
leased, when the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs told the em-
bassy that he had been held
for questioning.
McDonald said his captors
used "no physical intimida-
tion."
"The only time anyone
touched me," he added, "was
the day my interrogator told
me I would be freed. He led
me out the door of the inter-
rogation room and patted me
on the back.
"I suspected that there
was a regulation against
touching the prisoners, and
before I left I asked my in-
terrogator about that, and
he confirmed it,"'McDonald
said.
Th worst aspect of his im-
prisonment, McDonald said,
was the fear that he would
not be released.
"My interrogator told me
that they knew I was a spy
and could prove it," McDon-
ald said. "He said if I con-
fessed, the revolution would
make it easy for me. I would
go to a penal farm, maybe
for 15 years, Instead of 30
years in prison.
in Cuban l
ed 40 to 60 minutes every
other day, were all McDon-
ald had to look forward to-
"'the highlight of the week."
Aside from the session of
"close, hard questioning,"
life in prison was monoto.
nous, McDonald said.
His day began at 5 a.m.
when a light above the door
went on. Soon, guards
brought brooms,, mops and
disinfectant, and McDonald
cleaned the floor of his 8-
by-l0-foot cell.
There was a spigot with
drinking water in the cell,
a hole in the floor in a cor-
ner for use as A toilet and,
in the ceiling above it, a
waterspout for showgrs. He
.slept on a "typical prison
bunk' attached to the wall
with chains.
Prison Meals
At 7 a.m. breakfast-two
rolls-+was brought to the
prisoners.
The two other meals of
the day, served at 11 a.m.
and 5 p.m., were served in
trays with three sections.
One section always con-
tained rice prepared in. dif-
ferent ways-"fried, boiled,
mixed with beans, cooked
with batter." Another sec-
tion contained 'soup. The
third contained either an
egg or fish' dish or some-
thing sweet, like rice pud-
ding or fruit preserve.
"On the very best days
we'd get a whole fried fish,'
McDonald said.
"It was pretty much what
the average Cuban ate, al-
though not quite as good,"
he added.
McDonald spent the days
'Typical Police' More
walking up and down his
"I knew it was typical po- cell. He calculate that he
lice procedure," McDonald walked 10 miles a day from
added. "He was frightening ' 5 a.m. to 5;30 p.m., when he
th
l
e hel
out of me to get me
to tell the truth."
.McDonald said the inter-
rogator, a 26-year-old lieu-
tenant, became very impor-
tant to him - "he was
responsible for my life."
"The bumps on the cement
made the shadows look like
a mountain range, so I
imagined that it was the
Sierra Nevada in Califor-
nia," he said.
No Reading. or Talking
He had no reading matter,
and was not allowed to com-
municate with anyone on the
outside. He kept track of
the passage of days by mak-
ing marks on the stucco wall
with a spoon.
During the first three
weeks of his detention, Mc-
Donald said, he was "closely
questioned about my activ.
ities in Cuba and past as-
sociations." :For the next
22 days he did not see his
interrogator. ,
"I think that 22-day period
was critical," he said. "I
think they were trying to
determine whether I was
telling the truth. I was
afraid that somehow they
might make a mistake and
decide I was guilty. But I
knew they didn't have any
proof. They had all my
notes. I had bidden' noth-
ing."
On the 50th day of his im-
prisonment, McDonald was
taken to is interrogator.
"First he asked, as always,
how I was. Then he asked,
'Do you miss anything?'
"I answered, 'the street,'
meaning freedom.
Asked for Yogurt
"He asked if there was
anything else. For some
reason I thought of yogurt.
" 'With or without sugar?'
he asked.
"I answered, 'With sugar.-
From that day on twice a
day I got a big jug of yo-
gurt with that good, brown
cane sugar.
"From then on I felt they
didn't think I was a spy. I
was moved to a better cell
with two beds pushed to-
gether and a chair. A guard
gave me a book. The whole
tone of the questioning
changed. He didn't call me
U.S, citizens convicted of po-
went to bed.
"My program was 12 hours
up, 12 hours down," he said.
While lying in bed, the
prisoner watched the chang-
ing patterns of sun and shad-
ow on a cement overhang
pproved For Rdlease 2002/01/iV:``:tA-'t4r8bi4gR00010011014Pnued
 a liar any more. `some "poets who were per
McDonald was aske~pgro sFQrdaeledas30+021601/10 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000100110027-6
A t d the interviews
write out, in English, his con uc e
answers to the interrogator's openly.
questions and an autobiog- McDonald said that be-'
raphy. cause of "economic and oth
Then, on the 85th day, he or problems," the Cuban
was summoned again to the regime appeared to be nar-,
interrogation "room. rowing the limits of Intel
lectual freedom.
"My lieutenant had on a
blue suit instead of his mili- However, he said, this ob-
tary uniform. He smiled and servation should be bal-
said, `How are you?' Then anted by reporting that the
he gave a little speech. I government was attempting
think I know it by heart: to democratize the decision-
making process and selec-
`I am here officially on tion of leaders" for workers.
behalf of the revolution to "The limits are narrowing
tell you that because of its
high sense of justice the for intellectuals but broad-
revolution has determined it ening for workers and oth-
is going to grant you free- ers," he said.
dom. The charges have been McDonald plans to write a
'dropped and you will be book on his experiences in
able to leave Cuba.' " Cuba, and then finish the
"Then he asked me how I book be was working on be-
. felt. I said, `very happy.' fore his arrest.
'No Beatings' "I think the book I would
.> "He smiled and said, 'You have written before this ex-
see, 'there were no beat- perience would be the same
ings,' " a reference to one of . book I write today," he said.
their earlier exchanges. "My view of the successes
During an early interroga- and problems of the Cuban
tioh, the lieutenant ' had revolution is the same. I
rested his head on his fist still think the revolution is
and said: "We have a solu- essentially a plus for the
tin for your situation." people of Cuba."
m .a
McDonald, looking at the
fist, has asked: "Beatings?"
T h e interrogator h a d
laughed and answered that,
"The revolution does not do
=that, and he "often joked
with McDonald about the
Incident.
McDonald said that his
?imprIsonmenthad not
changed his generally sym-
pathetic attitude toward the
Cuban revolution.
He said he could under-
stand the Cuban govern-
ment's suspicions of him
"because of the history of
CIA involvement in Cuba,
.the constant intrusion of
CIA agents, Cuban exiles
from Miami.
"Cubans are highly sensi-
tive to the presence of any
activity that might be or-
ganized by the CIA, and,
after all, the job of the De-
partrment of State Security
is to protect the revolution."
McDonald said he had not
interviewed any opponents
of the regime, although he
had "talked to people who
were neutral, who were not
revolutionaries."
Poets Under Clouds
He said he did Interview-,
Approved For Release 2002/01/10 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000100110027,-6