Socialism always targets the most vulnerable: In communist Cuba, political prisoners over the age of 60 are being abused, and their human rights violated, according to a new report.
Via Martí Noticias (my translation):
Serious human rights violations against Cuban political prisoners over 60 years old reported
In a statement issued on Friday, the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) alerted international organizations about the critical situation faced by elderly political prisoners in Cuba. The organization stated that they “suffer discriminatory treatment” and are victims of “denial of rights and prison benefits” due to being considered “counter-revolutionaries.”
In the press release, the OCDH said this action by the Cuban regime is a clear violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international legal instruments. The organization stated that, following a thorough technical, legal, and political investigation of documented political prisoners, it is revealed the sentences and deprivation of liberty were the result of arbitrary detentions and trials without due process guarantees.
Yaxis Cires, Strategy Chief at the OCDH, pointed out the report documenting these facts was sent to the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. “The situation in Cuban prisons, in the Cuban penitentiary system, is truly incompatible with physical safety and human dignity, especially for those over 60 years old,” he said in a statement to Martí Noticias.
The OCDH insists the Cuban criminal justice system lacks independence in all phases of the process, perpetuating an injustice extending beyond the execution of the sentence, becoming a form of individual and collective punishment against those who oppose the regime.
The report emphasized the hostile environment in which these elderly individuals find themselves, both within the prison system and in the restrictions imposed on those serving sentences outside of prison. The well-being, dignity, and physical and mental health of these prisoners are affected due to conditions that are incompatible with international standards.
“The official figures themselves, which speak about the general Cuban population over 60 years of age, acknowledge that over 80% of them have a chronic illness and that more than 50% have two chronic illnesses,” said Cires.
The organization highlighted the concerning health situation faced by 17 of the elderly individuals detained, which violates the obligations established in the UN Charter for Human Rights, the Inter-American Convention on the Protection of the Human Rights of Older Persons, and other related legal instruments. Among the most serious cases recorded are: Félix Navarro Rodríguez (69), Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca (61), Carlos Manuel Pupo Rodríguez (68 years old), Miguel Díaz Bauza (80), and Fredy Beirut Matos (65).
Similarly, the organization stated there are other cases under investigation by the OCDH, which will be included as an expansion of the complaint.
These lives do NOT matter, and still wouldn’t even if they were all black. Willful blindness knows no bounds.