Letter from Carol in Brieva prison, October 2003

This is Carol’s letter, which refers to her arrest as well as that of her four comrades in Barcelona in September. All of them are accused of being members of an anarchist armed organization aimed at committing various assassinations.
After many weeks in custody in the hands of the ‘guardia civil’ (military police) with no possibility of communication even with their lawyers, the prisoners have been dispersed to different prisons in Spain, where they are being detained under the orders of 3rd degree F.I.E.S.
The F.I.E.S. (standing for ‘inner files of special supervision’) of the 3rd degree are imposed on prisoners who are accused of being members of armed organizations. The ‘special conditions of custody’ include complete solitary confinement (only half an hour in the prison yard with limitations), daily inspection of cells, supervision of any kind of communication and removal from one’s own area and environment.
The charges against them refer to different actions against the F.I.E.S. regime and the prisons, while there are also attempts to link them with Claudio Lavazza (one of the Italian comrades arrested for killing two cops following a robbery in Cordoba in 1996) as well as with other comrades in struggle.
They are accused of the assassination of journalists, politicians, bosses of companies, banks and police and the posting of an explosive device to the Greek embassy in Madrid to manifest Solidarity with those arrested in Thessaloniki, as well as for setting the explosives. A revolver, a gun, a carbine, explosives and anarchist informative material found in their home and car was produced as evidence.
If they are found guilty they could be sentenced to 20 to 30 years’ prison.
But these arrests, as well as any repressive attack by the State and the authorities, didn’t happen by chance at that moment, which is how they try to protect themselves from those who don’t submit.
The struggle against the F.I.E.S., the prisons and against any form of domination continues with the hunger strike of Claudio Lavazza, Gilbert Ghislan, Roberto Catrino and Danial Ramirez (from 1 November), as well as with the struggle of comrades all over the world.

SOLIDARITY IN DEED
FREEDOM TO THE PRISONERS

BRIEVA, October 30 2003

Dear friends and comrades

I’m here again, on barricade no 13 of the front line of Avila.
You see, my jail number is no 13. Though I have never been superstitious, now I want to believe that this detail will bring me luck.
In spite of the clouds and cold my morale is high and my spirit free… And I want you to know that your letters manage to jump over walls and pass through the bars. I don’t know if I receive all of them, but some of them reach me… Your words make me smile, give me strength, while the silent ones, those that we haven’t said or haven’t written but only sensed, those reach the depth of my soul.
You and we know well that it is always worth fighting and that the resistance isn’t a matter of choice any more but has become necessity and pleasure.
We are united by this certainty so much that no centre of extermination, no regime of isolation, no sentence is able to separate us even though we may be forbidden to embrace one another or look into each other’s eyes for many years to come.
The jail where I have been put isn’t big, but here inside I feel you so close by. Anyway, this is the only visit that they could never control or forbide, or even interfere with in any way. That is exactly how I feel and I hope that you who are outside can feel me next to you, in each step, because step by step (even stumbling) the magic of our struggle will manage to make anarchy real. The reality that has already begun to take place in our hearts, in our attitudes and in our everyday lives. It isn’t simply an illusion; I could see in my comrades’ eyes at the moment they cast me into prison. Still without being able to see it now, I continue to feel it in your and their eyes.
We have decided to break the chains and to take our lives into our hands again, and the consequences of such a decision, however hard and difficult they may be, can never make us slaves, but on the contrary they set us free… Wherever we are, even in the cruelest prison, freedom is inside us. If not, it’s because we have never discovered it…
I know that the comrades imprisoned in Thessaloniki began a hunger strike on October 5. I, from this prison, wish to send them my support with all my heart. They know that there aren’t any distances or walls able to keep us apart and I feel them next to me.
I read that the official press exploits our struggle of solidarity with the prisoners under the order of F.I.E.S. in order to present us as dangerous and ‘subversive’ elements. So according to the press we have visited the prisoners of GRAPO, as well as Claudio, the anarchist who is considered to be ‘the brain and responsible’ for whatever happens. Maybe those professional liars have consulted the IIPP and they know that’s not true. In fact, such visits were never allowed to us for ‘safety reasons’. Despite this trivial detail, yes, we took part in the struggle for abolishing the system of F.I.E.S., as well as in other claiming actions. And naturally we continue and we will continue to do that.
As you already know, we are imprisoned under the regime of 3rd degree F.I.E.S.. This fact, although it is reported in my prisnoer’s file, hasn’t in any way been announced to me up to now. It indicates that the conditions under which we are kept are rather special though we are in prisons of 2nd degree, as is mine. These conditions differentiate from prison to prison but in Brieva they include seclusion in personal cells, while it’s forbidden to keep persons under the regime of the F.I.E.S. in the neighbouring cells, just as we can’t participate together in different workshops (of course for ‘safety reasons’), while they can search especially our cells and supervise any kind of communication (oral visits, written words or phone calls).
The motivation for this supervision, according to the announcement is ‘the eventuality of criminal action and the dangerousness of the prisoner, evident in the case of accusation for terrorism, which is imputed to her, her possible participation in a terrorist organization and the possibility of transmitting information that could endanger the security of the Centre and its employees through her communication’.
So the letters we are allowed to send are restricted to two a week. For the rest, the conditions of imprisonment and the schedule are the same as those for the rest of the prisoners. The most visible difference is that our warders have to watch us, to analyze our reactions, our mood, our relationships and transmit this information. These are the elements that compose our files. Already more than one of my fellow prisoners, who are not registered in F.I.E.S., have been warned that they keep ‘bad company’ (I suppose that’s me).
I should say that my relationship with my fellow prisoners is good and the support that we give one another is important for our survival. Well, that is the way things are going in this little prison of Brieva. You will continue to learn my news as I think that I will be here for the time being.
Solidarity to Fernando, Carlos, Amanda, Eduardo and to all the imprisoned anarchists. I want to send my warm greetings to my comrade prisoners!
Health, anarchy and the destruction of all prisons.
Carol

WE DO NOT ASK FOR PERMISSION TO BE FREE
NEITHER WILL WE ASK THEM TO EXCUSE US FOR EXISTING