In Cuba, political prisoners wear yellow uniforms,"the wife of one prisoner told me in Havana. Originally, the color was meant, to be punitive—the same color worn by the army of defeated dictator Fulgencio Batista, with obvious implications. In the late 1960's," said another political prisoner's relative, "when my father was with Huber Matos and others in Cinco Y Medio prison, located five-and-a-half miles from Pinar Del Rio, a prison director tried to require political prisoners to change to the blue uniforms worn by common criminals. Led by Matos and his cell mates, political prisoners protested being lumped with common criminals, and refused to wear the blue uniforms. They were severely beaten." Some political prisoners then accepted the new color, but Matos and his followers never relented. "They were forced to go without any clothes at all for four months. The guards said that if they refused the blue uniforms they must go naked.