Former Cuban Prisoner Talks About Castro's Cuba

Castro's transfer-of-power has the entire world wondering what's next for Cuba, including people in Oklahoma. <br/><br/>News on 6 anchor Scott Thompson says many believe Fidel must be in pretty

Tuesday, August 1st 2006, 10:17 am

By: News On 6

Castro's transfer-of-power has the entire world wondering what's next for Cuba, including people in Oklahoma.

News on 6 anchor Scott Thompson says many believe Fidel must be in pretty bad shape to hand over power to his little brother. Others in Cuba worry Raul may be even worse for the country than the older Castro.

One Oklahoman got an inside look.

Bartlesville's Tom White was in a Cuban prison for a year-and-a-half, before he was released in 1980. Now the executive director for the Christian group "Voice of the Martyrs", White was dropping religious leaflets from his plane when it crashed. He says he was thrown in a prison with political dissidents including the mayor of Havana and UN delegates.

There he heard horror stories of murders committed at the Castros' hands. "In the prison, when Fidel and Raul were executing hundreds if not thousands of political prisoners in the early days, if the prisoner wasn't totally dead, Raul was the one who took his 45 and shoot them in the head."

White says many things have changed in the past 25 years. For instance, Castro has relaxed rules against religion. Still, he calls Fidel Castro evil and says he can understand why people are cheering "evil's demise".

White says the world should not expect regime change as long as there's a Castro brother alive.