Tracy Ingle: Another Drug War Outrage; from Reason Magazine (US), 5/7/08

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Carmenza Varon #99911-012

Carmenza with her brother

Sentenced to 19 Years, 7 Months in September 1994 for possession with intent to distribute cocaine

I'm writing from segregation, and I have no idea why the lieutenant put me here. I've been here for eight days, and I don't know how many more days I will be locked down 24/7 in this small, isolated cell. I apologize for writing in pencil, but that is all I have. You don't have any idea what it is like to be isolated all the time, wondering how long you can endure the loneliness and boredom, and wondering what's going to happen next -- and when. I don't have anyone on the outside. And I was so happy when I got your post card and I saw your handwriting from the November Coalition. I thanked God and tears streamed down my face.

I was 22 when I got arrested in 1992. I didn't know how dirty the government was, so I went to trial and refused to testify against some people I didn't know. The government wanted to give me a training and teach me what to say about these people. I would have been lying under oath.

My crime was minimal and I got 24 years. I've been here waiting for an answer while some of my co-defendants are gone already and are close to going home. I don't have anybody, as you know, I can't do anything. My family lives in Colombia, which makes it hard to see them. I have some friends here in the states who did time already. Some of them write me. Some of them don't because they just want to forget it all.

I was young and naïve when I met Wonda. I was working at a flea market booth with my sister in southwest Houston. When I met her we became immediate friends. I thought we were good friends. After about two months she offered me a job selling clothes in one of her boutiques. That's when my life ended. I didn't know it at the time, but Wonda's husband controlled multi-hundreds of kilograms of cocaine for a Colombian drug enterprise. Wonda testified that I was among her "inner circle of friends and confidants." I've been in prison for almost 10 years now, but when my faith and hope was almost nothing, the November Coalition appeared and now I have hope once again.

I pray to God every night not to let me wake up 'til the nightmare is over.

Carmenza Varon  99911-012
FCI Dublin
5701 8th St - Camp Parks
Dublin, CA 94568

Updated 1/20/03

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