- 11J prisoner Andy García Lorenzo has been on a hunger strike for 12 days, and his family fears for his life
- Independent journalist José Gabriel Barrenechea denounces from prison: “I am kept locked up to silence a critic.”
14ymedio, Madrid, 9 December 2024 — The opponent Maikel Herrera Bones, 48, died at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, in Havana on Saturday night, after being hospitalized for more than four months. The news was released by relatives of the activist on social networks and confirmed by some independent media.
According to Martí Noticias, the health of Herrera Bones, who had human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) since 2012, deteriorated due to the “instability in the supply of the medicines he needed and the lack of an adequate diet.” He got hopelessly ill after contracting Oropouche Fever and had to be admitted to the hospital, where he passed away.
“Maikel, who did so much for the freedom of his homeland without asking for anything in return, will not have the beautiful floral arrangements, masses or the grave he deserves,” Roberto Márquez said on Facebook.
Last October the patient was already in serious condition, very deteriorated neurologically
Yoel Parsons Bones, Herrera’s cousin and also an activist, told the same newspaper that the family was trying to get him a humanitarian visa to be treated in the United States. It was last October, and the patient was already in serious condition, very deteriorated neurologically.
To continue his activism “independently,” Herrera Bones left the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) and the Cuba Decide platform, in which he had been active, in 2021. This was clarified by Ana Belkis Ferrer García, sister of José Daniel Ferrer, leader of Unpacu, through Facebook.
“In 2020 he suffered seven months of provisional imprisonment in the prison for HIV patients in Güines, Mayabeque, for publicly protesting the lack of electrical service in his community,” Ana Belkis Ferrer said, adding: “If we had been able to get him medical attention in exile, we would have taken him out, but unfortunately we were not able to achieve it with Maikel, nor with Cristian Pérez Carmenate and Pablo Moya Dela; nor have we yet achieved it with Raul González, among others.”
Cuba Decide also published its condolences: “We deeply regret the death of Maikel Herrera Bones after years of harassment and repression at the hands of the regime for his struggle for the freedom of Cubans. For years Maikel dealt with health problems and constant medical complications. This brave young Cuban gave his youth to the cause of human rights and for several years promoted Cuba Decide.”
“If something happens to Andy, you will be responsible”
Andy García Lorenzo, sentenced to four years in prison for participating in the demonstrations of 11 July 2021, has been on a hunger strike for 12 days, and his family reports that his life is in danger. According to Pedro López, father-in-law of the activist’s sister, Roxana García, the prison authorities took “letters and documents that he considered important,” away from him. When they weren’t returned, he went on a hunger strike. His family learned of this nine days after he stopped eating.
The last time his mother, Dairy Lorenzo, was able to see him in Guamajal prison in Santa Clara, where he is serving his sentence, “he was very depressed and short of breath, and it was difficult for him to stand,” López said.
This Sunday, Roxana García made another appeal on social networks, explaining that although her mother managed to talk to the medical staff and was told that they had “the necessary materials,” “they have not performed medical tests, which leaves us uncertain about his true state of health.” And she warned: “We demand that the regime act immediately. This is not a matter of pride, it is a matter of life or death. If something happens to Andy, you will be responsible.”
Another political prisoner in Santa Clara, José Gabriel Barrenechea, sent a letter from prison in which he stated: “I am kept locked up to silence a critic, in his analysis and publications, of the Government’s management and the real possibilities of the Cuban socio-political system to get the country out of the crisis in which it is immersed.”
Undersecretary Eric Jacobstein spoke, in addition to independent businessmen and religious leaders, with relatives of political prisoners
The independent journalist was transferred to La Pendiente prison on November 18, ten days after being arrested for his participation in the popular protests that took place, a day earlier, in the municipality of Encrucijada, Villa Clara, after two days of blackouts. In his letter, he says that the demonstration was “spontaneous, massive and peaceful” and “had no other intention than to demand the replacement of the electricity after 45 hours without it and a week in which we had power for no more than 10 or 12 hours in total, in short intervals of two or three hours.”
According to the Denunciation Center of the Foundation for Pan American Democracy (FDP), the penitentiary center where Barrenechea is currently located is “known for its conditions of extreme overcrowding and for housing prisoners of all kinds,” and his stay in it “represents a serious risk to his life.”
Also, a letter signed by more than 200 journalists, activists, intellectuals and academics was released in which they demanded the immediate release of Barrenechea. The letter emphasized that the reporter, a collaborator of 14ymedio among other media, had been arrested “for political reasons,” in “frank violation of his rights.”
The text was signed by journalists Boris González Arenas, Camila Acosta Rodríguez and Yoe Suárez; playwright Luis Enrique Valdés Duarte, the coordinator of the Patmos Institute, Mario Félix Lleonart, analyst Juan Antonio Blanco, political scientist Armando Chaguaceda and academic Alina Bárbara López, among others. “We demand the immediate release of the writer and activist and, by extension, of all political prisoners in Cuba,” they demanded in the letter.
That request was reiterated by US officials visiting Havana last week on the occasion of the biannual talks on migration. According to U.S. Undersecretary of State Brian A. Nichols, U. S. Deputy Undersecretary Eric Jacobstein, independent businessmen and religious leaders conversed with relatives of political prisoners. “They stressed the important work they do to improve conditions in Cuba and called for the immediate release of people unjustly detained,” Nichols tweeted.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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