A few days ago, we received this letter from our imprisoned comrade Nahuel from Madrid, take 5 minutes of your time and read it. Free Nahuel! Solidarity is a weapon!
Maybe I’m alone in here but thanks to all my brothers and sisters around the world I feel the warm and peace that you send; I really love all the letters you send me.
I feel your friendship. You are near me.
I thank you all, and I specially wanted to thank Valentino from xCenerex, the guys from To Ashes, to Wolf Down, Joel and his girlfriend, xIronx, the guys from Berlin SXE and all the Animals Rights collectives that support me around the world.
In jail, being vegan and drug free is really fucking hard. Drugs are very present in the day to day, not only illegal ones. Doctors administer prisoners pills that make you act like a zombie, and if you give them troubles they make you take Lexatin (by force); that shit leaves you totally wasted, like a walking dead.
I’ve been writing lately about the problems of being vegan in jail, but here drug dealings are a serious problem. Interns are almost every day high or wasted, drugs are smuggled here without problems and are consumed and sold easily. I’m in a block (module 3) that is supposed to be designed specially to hold people with addiction problems, but it doesn’t work. Sometimes when I enter the bathrooms I can smell heroine burning, and really have to be wary of pipes and needles over the floor.
Sometimes you see prisoners talking and laughing alone, or screaming at something, or maybe they get completely paralyzed for minutes. Vomit on the floor and people with breathing problems are seen commonly on Wednesdays, the day we receive money from our families.
I can’t blame them. I think it’s their own way to escape from this shitty reality. Every day is just like the day before. We wake up at the same hour, eat, walk around, read and sleep. And everything starts over again. Some of them have lost their families, their wives, or people outside don’t give a fuck about them. Day-to-day suffering and living in a crowded place with more than 100 people is fucking hard. And this is a block that “helps” people with addiction problems. I can’t imagine how the situation is in other blocks.
On the other hand are the legal drugs. The drugs of the state, of the good ones, the fucking pills that leave you like a zombie, walking and walking. And the special pills for rebel ones. Now we have a pill for every problem, a special drug that can cure illnesses, real or not. And being rebel or stubborn is a serious is a serious illness here; If you are rebellious, you are sick, and the good jail doctors have special drugs for you. Being poor must be an illness too, as doctors here also have pills for those who steal. Fighting for what you believe in? Well there is a cure for that called freedom, but I guess it’s easier just to lock you up in maximum security (FIES).
Prisoners know about the drug problem. I mean, not all of them have drug addiction, some of them don’t even drink alcohol. For me, the smoke is also a big problem. Damn, every room I go there’s someone smoking. But in this block that treats drug abuse, smoking is not considered a problem. Just like a worker said to me, “to ban smoking would be radical”. But then there are all these prisoners with lung cancer, and nobody seems to think of the connection.
Here, when I say that I’m drug free some people look me like a weirdo. But when I say that I’m vegan (or “radical vegetarian”, like they call me), they look me like an alien. Some other prisoner said to me: “If you don’t drink, smoke, do drugs or eat meat… why are you even here?”
They don’t understand veganism, only two of them tried vegetarianism. But sometimes they do admire my drug free lifestyle. Some of them even thought that I was from some weird religion when I told them I don’t drink coffee.
I’m happy that, after talking about me not doing drugs with some of the prisoners, three of them have stopped smoking in front of me. For me that’s something great that shows they are good guys.
90% of inmates are here for two reasons; being poor and of course drugs. For selling, smuggling or hiding drugs, or for some crime committed under drug effects. Yeah, it is fucked up, but jail it’s not the solution. It will never be. Some of them even became junkies after they entered here.
This place is like a monster that devours people. A monster that was created by and for this system. One day jail will be something of the past. That day will come. But for now the resistance is the only way to make this day come.
No one believed the Roman Empire would fall.Gomorrah’s Season Ends! – Earth Crisis.
“From the core of my being come this promise to myself that I won’t break my honor before all. A one way mission through life. I won’t change my course.There’s far too much to experience and accomplish to waste a precious second drunk or hazed. An effective revolutionary thought the clarity of mind that I’ve attained. I see it all for WHAT IT IS as Gomorrah’s season ends in the grave…
In this self is all I need with this oath that keeps me FREE. To this I am forever true. I am Straight Edge. I AM STRAIGHT EDGE!”
It has been more than two months since I’m in prison. I was arrested with other friends for being part of Straight Edge Madrid. The government considers us a terrorist group. The reason? Being a part of the demonstration against the government here in Spain. For being part of the people that never left alone the ones who lost their homes. Me, like my friends, were part of the anti-eviction movement, and also the animal liberation movement.
They call us terrorists. They call me terrorist. But we were a group of friends that wanted to create a drug free space in the anarchist and antifascist hardcore punk scene in Madrid. We wanted to show that being Straight Edge is much more than expensive shoes, mosh dancing or stage dancing. It means to make a change. I use my sobriety for helping others who want to fight their addictions. I used it to fight injustice and oppression, to claim animal and human liberation. This is my crime, being a dissident.
I’m a FIES-3 prisoner. A maximum security prisoner, considered terrorist. I only can send two letters per week, all my communications are being listened and I’m always watched. I don’t want to talk about my sadness or my pain, if you want to know what is FIES you can read the book “Huye, hombre, huye” from Xosé Tarrio, another FIES prisoner. I guess in Deutch could be “hav ab, mensch”. I feel broken, but I have the support of my friends, my beloved ones, my mother. She said to me: “If you fall, it’s OK. I’m here to get you up.” So resisting is the only thing in my head right now.
Being vegan in here is really fucking hard, but not impossible. However, animal life in farms, zoos and labs is so much harder than this. Even if I must eat only bread and pasta I won’t support animal cruelty. Also I’m glad to be straight edge and not being part of this world of drugs. I won’t break the edge.
I’m in prison. This is something I must be able to confront. I’m not free, that’s a fact, but there is still many animals that you can liberate that claim for help, which are calling us to free them. There are many people that don’t have where to sleep or what to eat, and we can help them. There are many people that has lost everything and right now risk their own lives for a chance to start anew. My situation is nothing compared to those who live their lives in suffering.
I write this not to support me, but because I want my voice to be heard (or read) beyond this walls. I don’t want you to support me. I want you to support the animal liberation movement, the Earth liberation movement. Every action is a step forward in building a better world. To all of you vegan, straight edge, punk, hardcore kids. I’m here because in this world I only had to options, to obey or to fight, and I choose the last one. The hardest one. I’m far from my family and beloved ones, but I hope this letter can bring me near to all of you.
I know that what I’m telling you might sound crazy, but it is not impossible. If we stand united we can make it all possible. For all the people that fought against injustice to bring us the dream of a better world. For all the ones who are still fighting around the world to make all this happen. Only by creating safe spaces for everyone, creating webs of solidarity with other comrades we will make this come true.
I’m poor, immigrant (Peruvian), an “spic” (despective name for latins in the USA) for the cops. I’m Vegan Straight Edge. This world is so fucked up, but I still believe that we have the power to change it. Do me a favor, make this new world come true.
If you want to support Nahuel, write him a letter/postcard to following adress:
Manuel “Nahuel” Bustamante Vergara
Centro Penitenciario Madrid IV
Navalcarnero CTRA N-V Km 27,7
280600 Navalcarnero, Madrid.
You can read this letter in Spanish here: http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/node/35623