The young Cuban Néstor Damián Gámez González (Havana, June 26, 1987) will spend his second New Year's Eve in a prison in Mexico. He has been incarcerated since mid-June 2023 in a case that, in his view, has become increasingly complicated due to the arbitrariness and corruption surrounding the Mexican prison and judicial system.

"I am imprisoned for loving my children and defending my mother. I wanted to protect them, but I lost," he explains to CiberCuba in an audio message sent from prison, with an open heart.

"I am a father, son, who has been imprisoned since June 12, 2023, for loving my children and defending my mother, a mother who was assaulted by fifteen people on April 8, 2023, at the Family Courts in Toluca (State of Mexico), and whose life has been forever changed. I had to see her bloodied, take her to the hospital, and witness her fainting repeatedly; she suffered pain and has been left unable to work. Despite this, she has been denied all social programs with the aim of preventing her from seeing her grandchildren, who are my children, and with whom I have not been able to spend time for the past four years. I have been fighting for custody, and the only way they could deny me the custody that legally belonged to me was by imprisoning me or killing me," he stated in a WhatsApp message sent to CiberCuba.

According to his account, he has been a victim of threats and extortion and suspects that in this case, there have been bribes to the judges, in addition to the calls and threats made to his home "at gunpoint."

He wanted to take his own life

Néstor Damián Gámez confesses to CiberCuba that he is approaching the one-year mark since he attempted to take his own life. His fiancée left him because she believed it was shameful to be with a man in prison. He also lost his job at one of the most important companies in Mexico, the Coppel chain of stores.

In prison, everything is hardship. "I had to pull out a tooth in cold blood. You can’t imagine the pain I went through. I had been suffering from a toothache for a month. The body gets used to self-healing without medicine or anything."

From his time in court, he feels hurt having seen his mother cry while the judges mocked her and him for claiming that he has a murder order against him. "They have paid 50,000 pesos to have me killed," he says.

"I leave this audio for my children. I want them to know that I love them deeply. I fought and gave my life for them. I stood up against a tremendous power, the judicial mafia of this country, to be with them, to be a father figure just as my mother taught me. I had two fathers, a dad and a stepfather who both showered me with love; they raised me together, in peace and harmony, and now my mother is here alone. They have cut her off financially, and she cannot help me."

I encourage all Cubans to express a "I love you" or "I care about you," as we never know what tomorrow may bring. I was arrested leaving my workplace, in front of my colleagues. I was humiliated. I have been subjected to constant torture. My embassy withdrew its support after I wrote a letter to Díaz-Canel, but once you leave Cuba, you are no longer considered Cuban. I leave this as a legacy because if something happens to me, as is only logical, I want it to be known that a Cuban fought for his two children and his mother, but lost.

Néstor Damián Gámez González was working as a manager at a Coppel store when he decided to seek legal recourse to claim his right to see his son, who was three years old at the time and is now nearly six. However, before the hearing could take place, a brawl occurred that made headlines in news programs in Toluca. The fight involved both parties in the custody dispute over the child.

The incident occurred on April 8, 2022. Following the viral attack, the ex-sister-in-law of the victim and lawyer for his ex-wife reported him for sexual abuse, prompting Mexican authorities to issue a precautionary measure of preventive detention. They believed that since Nestor Damián Gámez González is Cuban, he might flee the country, despite having lived in Mexico for eight years, holding a stable job, and being well-rooted there. He remains in prison for refusing to negotiate with the prosecution and accept the charges that are falsely alleged against him.