Authorities prevent Sonia Álvarez, the ’Lady in White’ and wife of Félix Navarro, from visiting her daughter Sayli in prison, because she was wearing white
14ymedio, Havana, 6 March 2025 — The situation in Cuban prisons continues to deteriorate. In addition to overcrowding and poor medical coverage, the food ration has been reduced in recent months. “I am very worried about my daughter, she can practically only eat a full plate every 15 days when she has a visitor,” Annia Zamora, mother of the political prisoner Sissi Abascal, told 14ymedio this Wednesday, after visiting her daughter in La Bellotex prison, in Matanzas.
“I found her in good health, but the food situation was very bad. They are not giving them bread for breakfast,” the mother details. “For us relatives it is very difficult to bring anything to the prison because we live in a place where there are very few options to buy, here there it has been more than a week since there has been any bread,” says Zamorra, speaking about the town of Carlos Rojas where they live.
Activist Sayli Navarro is also in La Bellotex prison and, like Abascal, was convicted after demonstrating on 11 July 2021. The daughter of former political prisoner Félix Navarro was sentenced to eight years of deprivation of liberty for attack and public disorder, while Abascal is serving a six-year sentence.
“It’s a little bit of rice that they give them when there is any, the rest is a watery broth. This week they are giving them some tomato jam that Sissi says is very bad, so that you can hardly eat it”
“It’s a little rice that they give them when there is and, the other is a watery broth. This week they are giving them some tomato jam that Sissi says is very bad, so that you can hardly eat it,” Zamora complains. “You can end up with anemia, because what you get from food is not enough to stay healthy.”
Zamora has no news that either Abascal nor Navarro will benefit from the prisoner releases agreed to between the Cuban regime and the Vatican, a process that resumed last Thursday after being stopped for several weeks. “Nothing is said, no one gives information in prison about that,” she laments.
Last January, the Cuban regime denied, for the fourth time, to both political prisoners the benefits to which they are entitled. Both Abascal and Navarro — who is the daughter of the opponent Félix Navarro who was released from prison last January – were taken to the prison management, where they were informed that their request to “pass to a regime of less severity” was rejected, so they remain under “severe regime.”
This Tuesday, Navarro’s parents travelled from the municipality of Perico to visit her in prison, but the guards prevented the entry of her mother, Sonia Álvarez, Lady in White. “Officer Fernando introduced himself and asked to talk to us on the outskirts of the prison, before allowing the relatives to enter for the visit,” Félix Navarro explained to this newspaper. The uniformed man said he was not going to allow “Sonia, dressed in white” to enter, although she had been able to do so on other occasions.
Only Navarro was able to meet his daughter. “She is very firm and told me that she is focused on the year 2030, because she does not expect her release before that date.” That same afternoon, Navarro, a former prisoner of the Black Spring, went to the Military Prosecutor’s Office of Matanzas to complain about what happened. “There I was attended by Major Bárzaga, whom I know from previous visits to the place. His initial response was that prison officials are the ones who define what is related to the wardrobe.”
Navarro replied to the officer that in the regulation “nothing about the color of the wardrobe appears.” A few minutes later, Bárzaga returned and informed him that the answer to his complaint would be received from the Prosecutor’s Office, after interrogating the officers who had denied Álvarez’s entry into prison.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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