More than two years since massive protests broke out all over Cuba on July 11, 2021, hundreds of political prisoners from those demonstrations are being abused by the communist Castro dictatorship. Beatings, lack of food, and denial of medical care are just some of the examples of inhumane treatment these protesters are experience in Castro gulags.
Via Martí Noticias (my translation):
Beatings, malnutrition, and zero medical care denounced as additional punishment meted out to political prisoners from July 11th
Political prisoners and their families told Martí Noticias of the abuses and horrible conditions they are facing in Cuban prisons.
Via activist Jiordan Marrero Huerta, we received complaints from two Cuban dissidents who describe the extreme pressures they are subjected to on orders from the State Security.
Alejandro Camejo Paunier, 52, who resides in the province of Villa Clara and is serving his sentence in Unit 6 of Kilo 7 prison in the city of Camagüey, is a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and has serious health issues.
The prisoner warns of the precarious conditions and physical abuse he is subjected to at the instruction of the political police.
“Look, I am diabetic, hypertensive, and have kidney problems. The diet here, in this unit of Kilo 7, they don’t give it to me, they only have it recorded in the medical history for when an inspection comes, as a sign that I do have a diet, but I don’t receive it, nor do I receive medical treatment and they are starving me. And it all consists, nothing more and nothing less, of psychological warfare, because I don’t agree with a government. My head is full of bruises because they wanted me to watch the news, to participate in political activities under duress, and nobody can force me to do anything, what they are doing here is a crime, starving the prisoners to death,” warned Camejo Paunier.
The UNPACU opponent has already passed through several prisons on the island and before being transferred to the Camagüey prison system, he spent a year and two months isolated in the Potosí prison in Las Tunas, without the right to phone calls or visits.
Dixán Gaínza Moré, 37 years old, also a UNPACU activist, is a prisoner of 11J with a six-year sentence for protesting in the city of Camagüey.
The political prisoner drew attention to the poor conditions suffered by inmates at La Empresita prison in the Agramontino territory.
“Here the critical situation with medical attention to the prisoners and also with their food, which is very little and lacking in protein every day. We are dealing with dengue and many difficulties, and so the inmates are not being given the attention they should be, as expressed by the laws and the Constitution, and where the prisoner’s right to medical attention and also to proper and adequate nutrition is being denied,” said Dixán Gaínza.
The opponent has already carried out several strikes in different penitentiaries, demanding rights and improvements for the inmate population.
In the maximum-security prison of Boniato, in the city of Santiago de Cuba, is Jorge Luis García García, 48 years old and serving a 13-year sentence for participating in the demonstration in the town of Palma Soriano.
His father, Jorge García Lujo, who just visited him in prison, reported to Martí Noticias the harsh conditions the political prisoner faces: “What hits me the most there is the food they are giving in Boniato prison, they are only giving flour and white rice, nothing else. In Boniato, there are no medicines, lack of hygiene, sometimes they have itching and problems, and there is no way to resolve them. There is no solution for anything there, everything is at zero there.”
Jorge Luis García, a professional chef from El Chelín restaurant, who was detained two days after the demonstration, was beaten during the arrest after the protest in the town of Palma by special forces, causing injuries to his neck and chest area, with the lymph nodes in that area inflamed and growing. No biopsy has been performed to determine if they are cancerous because, according to the State Security handler, there are no medical resources in the prison, but they also don’t take him to a hospital, his father said.