Madrid/Dozens of common prisoners at the La Condesa prison for foreigners, in Mayabeque, have been on hunger strike since last June 4. This is reported in a letter made public this Friday in which they denounce mistreatment received in prison and claim criminal benefits that are denied even though they meet the requirements.
One of them is Fabio, a Venezuelan almost 35 years old, who “fell imprisoned for drugs” and was sentenced to 15 years. His mother, María, tells 14ymedio via telephone that he has been imprisoned for seven years, and the reason why they deny him parole, which he can aspire to as soon as he completes half of his sentence, is because “he stood up.”
The young man’s father, imprisoned with him for the same crime and with the same sentence, died in prison “due to lack of medical care,” says María. The last time she was able to visit the prison in Cuba was two years ago.
In total, this mother says, there are 74 Venezuelans, sentenced for various crimes, in the group of planted. These, in the letter they address to activists, organizations and independent journalists, expose the string of grievances to which they are subjected and request “with all urgency international support.”
“A considerable number of us, foreign prisoners, were disappeared in the early hours of the morning and with each passing day we continue to disappear without leaving a trace”
“Why is it that day after day it is difficult for us to have access to water, electricity, adequate medical care; “They give us a deficient diet, without any nutritional value, reduced in its entirety?”, they ask. “Why, given all the food and confinement difficulties we face, are we not allowed to move to our countries, where we can continue serving our exaggerated (illegal) sentences with dignity?”
The signatories assert that they are denied “all types of rights and benefits,” in accordance with current law, “for the simple fact of being foreign prisoners.”
And what is more serious: “We continue to be repressed and threatened, and a considerable number of us, foreign prisoners, were disappeared in the early morning and with each passing day we continue to disappear without leaving a trace, and others in punishment cells called for their cruelty. ’47’”. Until now, they write, “no one knows the whereabouts of the companions who were disappeared from here.”
It is not the first time that the inmates of La Condesa rebel in a similar way to demand their rights. Three years ago, two of them, the Colombian Wilson Marín Castellanos and another named Arturo Sánchez, also went on a hunger and thirst strike demanding extradition to their country of origin that was denied and an improvement in the terrible conditions of the prison.
As collected CyberCuba then from an intern, “breakfast is a bread and a tablespoon of eggs beaten in a 200 milliliter glass of sweetened water”, and lunch, 30 grams of chicken, “6 centimeters of plantain hill”, about 60 grams of rice, 200 milliliters “of a soup that is more water than ingredients,” two tablespoons of jam “with a liquid texture” and a loaf “the size of a 12-year-old child’s fist.”
