While his mother tried to see him in prison, State Security left her a summons.
14ymedio, Havana, 22 July 2025 — Duannis León Taboada has been a ’plantado’*, on a hunger and thirst strike since last Friday at the Combinado del Este Penitentiary in Havana, demanding “justice and freedom.” Yenisey Taboada Ortiz, the mother of the young man who has been is a political prisoner since 11 July 2021 (11J), tells 14ymedio that he drank water today, but “is very weak.”
This Monday, a lieutenant informed the woman that her son, who is serving a 14-year sentence for sedition for his participation in the protests, had just been registered as a striker and that until he was isolated (placed in a single cell), she would not be allowed to see him.
According to the mother, after exerting pressure and staying at Combinado del Este until seven at night, she was allowed a phone call. “I want my freedom, Mom,” Duannis told her, adding that he started the strike “for all the protesters and for the mothers who continue to suffer.”
Taboada managed to convince her son to at least drink water, since at the beginning of his protest the young man had decided to go on a hunger and thirst strike. “It’s important,” she says, recalling that León was born with kidney problems. “Not to mention that I’m against strikes, always respecting everything he’s going through, but I want my son alive,” she added.
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In an audio recording shared by the Cultural Rights Observatory, the political prisoner’s mother can be heard saying: “I’m speechless. The only thing I can say and shout to the world is that I want my son alive. You took him from me alive.”
The NGO emphasized that “what is happening today with Duannis, 26, is the culmination of a process of profound depression in the face of a full-blown social crime, exacerbated by the abuses of State Security, which acts with total impunity, monopolizing not only military and police forces, but also civilian institutions that should adhere to their role as public servants.”
Yenisey Taboada Ortiz tells 14ymedio that while she was at Combinado del Este trying to see her son, State Security showed up at her house and left her a police summons. “I’m not going to go,” she warns. “They keep underestimating mothers.”
The striker’s mother admits she is overwhelmed: “Because when a child’s life is in danger, the world freezes, but I must be very strong.”
On the eve of the fourth anniversary of the massive demonstrations of June 11, Prisoners Defenders reported that of the 1,158 political prisoners serving sentences on the island, 65% (752) were arrested during those protests. In its report, it emphasized that the regime has continued to imprison its opponents with impunity—at a rate of 10 per month over the past 12 months, although several have been released—including eight new arrests last June, at least half of them during the protests on the 29th in Guanabacoa.
*Translator’s note: “Plantado’ — literally ’planted’ — is a term with a long history in Cuba and is used to describe a political prisoner who refuses to cooperate in any way with their incarceration. See also…
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