Cubalex records a total of 56 deaths “in custody” in two years, since January 2022
14ymedio, Madrid, July 16, 2024 — Independent journalist and political prisoner Carlos Michael Morales has terminated his month-long hunger strike. As reported by Baptist pastor Mario Félix Lleonart on Tuesday on his social networks, Morales announced it from the prison room of the Provincial Hospital of Villa Clara, after learning that they scheduled his trial for this coming Friday, July 19.
A doctor told the journalist, says Lleonart, that he would not authorize Morales to attend in his current state, but “in his process there are so many irregularities and violations that he wants to give him the opportunity to attend because he hopes for his freedom.”
Several organizations stated weeks ago that Morales, admitted to the medical unit of the Guamajal prison, in Santa Clara, was in “serious danger.” The activist, who has already been in prison for two years and 10 months for demonstrating in Caibarién, Villa Clara, during the massive protests of 11 July 2021 (11J), and who was released in March of this year, was arrested again on May 4. In two months he has gone on two hunger strikes.
A doctor told the journalist that he would not authorize Morales to attend in his current state
After several incidents of police harassment, Morales was arrested during a summons in the Criminal Investigation Unit of Caibarién. He immediately began his first hunger strike, which he suspended on May 22, pending the response to a habeas corpus presented by his lawyer.
In a letter that Morales sent after that first strike, he said that after a strong pain in his chest, he was denied medical assistance and, instead, was beaten by the head of the unit. He was then transferred to the hospital in critical condition
Almost a month after that, on June 19, the independent journalist resumed his hunger strike.
The news of the testimony of Morales’ protest was announced on the same day that the legal organization Cubalex published the report Death in Custody in Cuba, which analyzes the deaths in custody that occurred on the Island and the repressive patterns carried out by the Security forces between January 2022 and January 2024.
In total, the NGO documented 56 deaths, most of them inmates (34), but also those detained in police stations (9), recruits of compulsory military service (11) and even 2 femicides.
The main causes of death in custody recorded by Cubalex were denial of medical care, violence, suicide, severe disciplinary measures, hunger strikes, work accidents and negligence of the authorities. The document reveals, the organization asserts, “a systematic pattern of negligence, abuse and lack of accountability on the part of the Cuban State, aggravated by the lack of adequate, independent and transparent investigations, which guarantees the impunity of those responsible.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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