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Armando Valladares was a political prisoner and prisoner of conscience in Cuba. Valladares was jailed in 1960, at age 23, when the new regime under Fidel Castro began to crack down on dissidents. He was sent to prison for refusing to place a placard on his desk at work stating that he supported Communism. Valladares spent 22 years in prison. Steadfast convictions and unbendable perseverance marked Valladares’ long imprisonment, and for that rebellion he earned the highest degree of torture - savage beatings, psychological and biological experimentation and isolaton beyond imagination.

Valladares, unlike many of his fellow political prisoners, survived the forced labor camps. He survived years of solitary confinement. Neither sunlight nor artificial light pierced the darkness of his cell where welded steel plates covered the windows and doors.

When, in 1963, Valladares’ was given a blue uniform to wear (the uniform that distinguished common criminals from political prisoners), he refused, electing to go naked until 1983.

During 22 years of confinement, Armando Valladares received 13 visits.

In spite of the inhumane treatment, the daily torture, and routine beatings designed to elicit his political rehabilitation, Valladares never wavered from his commitment, holding fast to the values and principles he cherished. He asserts even today that, "to have recanted, to have surrendered my ideals before the communists would have been spiritual suicide." Valladares’s refusal to participate in any political rehabilitation programs elicited a swift response from the government - 46 days without food. His weakened muscles relegated him to a wheelchair for 5 years.

An international campaign for his release, led by his wife Marta, culminated in French President François Mitterrand making a personal appeal to Fidel Castro. Armando Valladares was freed after 22 years.

Valladares memoirs, Against All Hope, which details his incarceration, became an international best-seller. On the advice of his daughter Maureen, then President Ronald Reagan appointed Armando Valladares to serve as the US Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Valladares was one of the closest friend of Pedro Luis Boitel.

• Cuban people