14ymedio, Madrid, 7 May 2024 — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has issued precautionary measures in favor of activist Aniette González García, sentenced last February to three years in prison for photographing herself wrapped in the Cuban flag. In addition, the Cuban Human Rights Observatory (OCDH), requesting the measures, reported this Monday on the “worrying conditions” that the activist endures in the Kilo 5 prison, in Camagüey.
“After analyzing the allegations of fact and law made by the applicant, the Commission considers that the proposed beneficiary is in a serious and urgent situation, since her rights to life, personal integrity, and health face a risk of irreparable harm,” the IACHR states in a document cited by the Observatory.
González also denounces the abuse to which she has been subjected by the prison authorities and State Security
Last March, González was denied an appeal of her conviction. On March 22, 2023, the activist published several photos in which she appears wrapped in the Cuban flag. The images were her support for the campaign “The flag belongs to all”, in support of the release of artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro Movement, condemned in turn for “an affront to national symbols”.
The next day, the woman was arrested by nine agents who searched her home and seized a flag and three mobile phones. In February of this year, she was sentenced to three years in prison, a conviction denounced by international organizations such as Amnesty International.
In its resolution, the IACHR considers it “especially serious” that Aniette González “lacks access to medical care to get the right diagnosis for the bleeding she suffers.”
It also denounces the abuse to which she has been subjected by the prison authorities and State Security, such as insults, being confined in a cell “flooded with water, with humidity, poor light and ventilation”, preventing her from resting by taking away “the necessary elements for it”, controlling her clothes, giving her little and spoiled food, interrogating her in rooms “with low temperatures, at any time of the day”.
The Commission calls on the Cuban regime to”take the necessary measures to protect Aniette’s rights to life, health and personal integrity”
Likewise, the organization warns that the activist, who is locked in a maximum security prison, is monitored by agents of the political police and not by prison officials, which shows that “she has been subjected to biased treatment because she is considered ‘counterrevolutionary’ and because she has demonstrated through the internet.”
Thus, the Commission asks the Cuban regime to “adopt the necessary measures to protect Aniette González García’s rights to life, health and personal integrity, with a gender perspective, in accordance with applicable international standards and obligations.”
According to another statement made public on Monday by the OCDH, in April there were on the island “at least 314 repressive actions against the civilian population” – 75 arbitrary detentions and 239 abuses – bringing the total so far this year to 1,287.
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