Only five political prisoners were released, “after full compliance with the sanction or measure imposed,” said Prisoners Defenders
14ymedio, Havana, 13 June 2024 — With the arrest of 19 people in May, the Cuban regime has a total of 1,113 political prisoners, according to the most recent report by Prisoners Defenders (PD) published this Thursday. Of the cases listed for the month, 11 are protesters of the Juraguá protests, in Cienfuegos, on May 28. In the same period, only five political prisoners were released, “after full compliance with the sanction or measure imposed,” said PD. Likewise, Lisdani Rodríguez Isaac, of Villa Clara, was released with an extra-criminal license granted for her pregnancy, which will last a year, after which she could return to jail.
According to the organization, based in Madrid, the month of May was characterized by “repression against peaceful demonstrators, large-scale repressive operations against independent journalists, torture of prisoners with psychiatric conditions and the denial of prison benefits for political prisoners entitled to them,” such as parole or the suspension of correctional work, according to the statement.
On May 20, the political police also arrested, interrogated, summoned or prohibited other independent journalists from leaving their homes
In the specific case of the detainees in Juraguá, who took to the streets in protest of the prolonged blackouts and the lack of other essential services, “the authorities imposed a bail of 200,000 Cuban pesos – 530 dollars in the informal exchange market in Cuba, an unattainable figure for most Cubans. They are being prosecuted for the alleged crimes of public disorder, contempt or attack,” the organization explains.
Erich González Lima, a journalist residing in the Nuclear City of Juraguá, is one of the demonstrators arrested by the Cuban authorities for participating in the protest. On May 20, when the Day of the Republic* was being commemorated – which the regime does not celebrate – the political police also arrested, interrogated, summoned or prohibited other independent journalists such as Juan Manuel Moreno Borrego and Antonio Suárez Fonticiella from leaving their homes.
Jorge Luis Boada Valdés was also sentenced in May to nine years in prison for the crime of “propaganda against the constitutional order.” Boada had been imprisoned in the Combinado del Este for more than two years for having written on a wall several phrases insulting Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
PD also warned about the violation of the rights of prisoners in Cuban prisons and gave as an example the case of Adel de la Torre, a young man who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and who, at the age of 25, “was imprisoned for demonstrating peacefully” during the social protests of July 11, 2021, and sent to prison 1580, located in San Miguel del Padrón, Havana. The organization denounced the “violent beatings by the guards” that the young man has suffered.
The relatives of most of these inmates have tried to negotiate with the authorities for better medical treatment and shorter stays in prison
Other political prisoners have been denied transfer to less severe disciplines or other relief to which they should have access. This is the case of Luis Robles Elizastigui, the “young man with the banner,” sentenced to five years in prison for raising, in 2021, a poster asking for the release of rapper Denis Solís. According to PD, the young man was denied parole because, “although he satisfies the minimum term required and maintains adequate conduct in a state of imprisonment, the Court took into account the seriousness of the matter, in addition to the influence it had on the population and the tranquility of the citizenry, being necessary to ratify his confinement so that he reflects on the criminal action or actions carried out,” according to the aforementioned court.
The monthly report of the Cuban Center for Human Rights, led by the opponent Martha Beatriz Roque, offers a similar assessment. The document denounces the mistreatment of prisoners with psychiatric or chronic conditions, including, as more “difficult” cases, Alexander Díaz Rodríguez – cancer patient; Abel Lázaro Machado Conde – psychiatric disorders and epilepsy; Dayron Martín Rodríguez – psychiatric patient with suicidal behavior; and Ismael Rodríguez González – psychiatric conditions.
The relatives of most of these inmates have tried to negotiate with the authorities for better medical treatment and shorter stays in prison. Many are even obligated to take medications to the prisons to treat their family members, and the authorities have ignored their requests that the rights of prisoners be respected.
*Translator’s note: The Day of the Republic commemorates 20 May 1902, the day Cuba officially acquired independence from the United States.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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