The massive hunger strike carried out by common Venezuelan prisoners at the beginning of June in La Condesa prison and which ended with the forced transfer to other prisons of its main promoters, It exposed the abuses and torture of all kinds that occur in the Cuban prison system.
The Countess does not escape the serious economic situation of the country and the zero interest on the part of the authorities in providing prisoners with minimum conditionsin accordance with national and international standards on the treatment that should be given to prisoners.
This prison, opened in June 1997, is located on the Río Seco highway and belongs to the municipality of Güines, Mayabeque.
It is the only penitentiary center where people of other nationalities serve sentences and it has five camps, two of them for inmates in the minimum severity regime, two for those in the severe regime, and a fifth (with capacity for 38 inmates) is dedicated to elderly or sick prisoners.
La Condesa prison has an approximate capacity for more than 250 prisoners.
DIARIO DE CUBA had access to a document that addresses in detail the operation of this prisonwritten by a prisoner who is still incarcerated and signed by 27 former prisoners from eight countries. The document is intended to raise awareness among the authorities of this prisoner’s country so that they demand that the Cuban authorities transfer this prisoner.
One of the fragments states: “The drinking water arrives between 5:00AM and 6:00AM and they cut it off at 10:00PM or 11:00PM. When there is no electricity—especially in summer—there is no water during the day either.”
“During the summer, daily blackouts can last up to eight hours at a time, making the temperature inside the prison feel like putting your hand in an oven. The ceilings are made of concrete and the intense heat lasts until midnight. The only power plant is reserved for the night, but because the heat can be so stifling, the fans only move warm air. When someone walks through the door, it is like entering a sauna,” the document adds.
He also states that “the location of the prison is less than a kilometer from the Güines garbage dump and in front of a sugarcane field. During harvest times, smoke and ash invade the surroundings of the prison and with it, the bad smells from the burning in the dump.”
Food is one of the most sensitive topics and points out that “every day there is less quantity, less quality and less variety. At the end of 2022, they removed the evening snack that consisted of bread and a glass of juice. We have never eaten beef and since 2022 they have not given pork again.. They give chicken two or three times a month, in tiny pieces or cut into very small pieces. They used to give two eggs, but now they only give one.”
Prisoners in La Condesa must manage part of their own toiletries such as razors, deodorant and toothbrush. On this topic, the document consulted points out that “the issue of being shaved is the most notable example of undignified treatment. The prison does not provide shavers, but if you are not shaved, they draw your attention and if you respond that they don’t give you anything, they will It is normal that everything ends with a resolution (negative notation in the file that is always magnified by adding ‘lack of respect’ for authority). Then, they send you to the Disciplinary Council, where they take five to ten days off your time. 60 days of annual discount for good behavior and you automatically lose the possibility of obtaining the additional 60 days of discounts for good behavior.
Health care is another area in which Cuban authorities commit constant violations and negligence. On this issue, the document states: “There is no full-time doctor or dentist; they are present at most twice a week. On more than one occasion there has been no availability of a vehicle to take the inmate to a medical center outside of the prison, because there is no fuel, or the medical center has no electricity and the medical appointment is canceled. When the inmate manages to have a treatment, there is no way to guarantee its integrity. The medical treatments begin, but they rarely end. “.
As for work outside the prison, it is only carried out by prisoners who are under the minimum severity regime, but very few, a number that does not reach ten, receive remuneration for it, of the more than 100 prisoners who have to work.
“All ‘minimum’ prisoners must work ‘voluntarily forced’. If they refuse to work without pay, they do not receive the additional 60 days of reduction of their sentence; They must first sign a document waiving salary. This document specifies that the work is voluntary,” the document states.
”Of the prisoners who go outside the prison to break stones and do agricultural work, apart from the hope of receiving the four months’ reduction per year of their sentence, they also do it to get something to eat; such as cassava, potatoes, mangoes and coconuts. Sometimes the jailers let them bring in a little of that food, but never like the Cuban prisoners who work in the camp outside the prison; “They can bring enough to eat, foreigners can’t,” he emphasizes.
Prisoners demand the application of laws
In recent years, the inmates of La Condesa have not only demanded better material conditions, but the retroactive application of the new Penal Code —in force in Cuba since 2022— and other minor legal instruments that, if applied, would allow them to have their sentences reduced or to be transferred to their countries.
”My brother Jackson Luna was sentenced to the minimum sentence of 15 years for the crime of drug trafficking, but the sanctioning framework changed with the new Penal Code and now the minimum sentence for this crime is ten years. The Cuban Constitution itself, in its Article 100, says that if any sanctioning framework were to undergo a change that benefits the inmate, it must be applied and the sentence adjusted to the current law. We have demanded that they enforce this change, but they have refused at all times,” explains Mayerlin Luna, sister of this Venezuelan common prisoner.
In the Letter made public by Venezuelan prisoners They questioned that the Cuban authorities also show no interest in applying Special Instruction 13 of the Governing Council of the Supreme People’s Court, which establishes the early release and transfer to their countries of foreign prisoners.
However, this special instruction clarifies that those prisoners who could be granted the benefit of early release would only be permitted to leave the national territory on an exceptional basis.
The instruction details the cumbersome and tortuous procedure for the prisoner to be approved to leave the country and makes it clear that both the Ministry of the Interior and the Attorney General’s Office must issue opinions that authorize and advise said transfer.
The Colombian prisoners have also joined the demands of Venezuelan prisoners, which in La Condesa are more than 30 men. (In total there are just over 50 Colombian prisoners, if we add the women held in the El Guatao prison in Havana.)
One of these inmates, Manuel José Bermúdez Jimenez, has requested his transfer to Colombia, based on the Treaty on the Transfer of Condemned Persons signed between the Cuban regime and Colombia in 1999, but so far his request has not been successful.
“Since 2020 in which I was detained, I have seen how citizens of Bulgaria, Spain, France, Romania, Italy and Canada have been transferred to their countries to finish serving their sentence near their own, since there are treaties in the matter between those countries and Cuba,” says Bermúdez Jiménez in a letter written last year to the Colombian authorities.
According to this inmate, There are several Colombian prisoners with serious health problems and some of advanced age.who as a humanitarian gesture should be transferred to their country, to be closer to their families.
The gradual deterioration of conditions at La Condesa has made prisoner protests happen more frequently in recent years. Since 2019, at least four protests have been reported, but the terrible conditions and mistreatment by the authorities persist. It is therefore not difficult to foresee that the insubordination of the foreign prisoners at La Condesa is far from over.
