Havana Cuba. – Activist Yuniel Herrera Rodríguez, one of the founders of the Movimiento de Presos y Expresos Políticos 11J (M11J), an organization created to provide humanitarian aid to political prisoners and their families, described in an interview with CubaNet the serious situation that exists in the Valle Grande closed-regime penitentiary, where he was confined for more than a year.
According to the ex-prisoner of the July 11, 2021 (11J)the situation inside the prison has him “very concerned” not only because of the deficiencies that exist there, but also because of the mistreatment by the prison authorities.
“The world must find out about the injustices that are committed in Castro’s prisons and the hunger that is going on, because I experienced that hunger firsthand. Little food and many beatings, that’s what it all sums up, ”he recounted.
Herrera Rodríguez served a sentence of one year and six months in prison, initially in Valle Grande and then in the prison 1580located in the municipality of San Miguel del Padrón, where he finished serving his sentence.
“During the time I was incarcerated, I did not receive prison benefits of any kind. They [los guardias] They said that I was behaving badly because I told them that I was against the revolutionary process and it seems that it hurt them, and they took my sentence back. [hasta el final]”, he counted.
The opponent was arrested on July 12, 2021 on Calzada de San Miguel when he was on his way to participate in the historic anti-government demonstrations that took place that month.
“While I was screaming ‘Homeland and Life!’, ‘We want food!’ and ‘Freedom!’ A patrol car arrived, they arrested me and took me to the Eleventh Police Unit. There I was tortured: I cannot say that they only beat me, no, they tortured me, because they began to beat me while handcuffed to a fence and thus I lost a pair of teeth and they broke my chin,” said the opponent.
In April 2022, the regime brought Herrera Rodríguez to trial in the Diez de Octubre Court. According to the activist, the officer who handcuffed and beat him in the cells of the police station was there. During the trial, the defense lawyer asked the guard how it was possible for him to break several teeth in a fall, “because that’s what they said.”
“The officer was nervous, but he denied everything and there he stayed. That day I took the teeth as evidence and they did not let me take them out. They told me that was not allowed,” he added.
Herrera Rodríguez was convicted of the crime of contempt. According to him, all the suffering he experienced in Valle Grande and finally in Unit 1580 helped him realize that political prisoners must be advocated more and help them financially.
“There is a lot of work, a lot of hunger and need in the concentration camps of the regime; That is why we have to help them a little more with money, with medicines, food mainly, because there are hardly any in the prisons. I think that something must be done for them and it must be done now, ”he assured.
Herrera Rodríguez founded together with Adrian Curuneaux Stevens the M11J, in order to receive aid to “support all those who are suffering unfair sentences from the Cuban political system.”
“What we want is for you to help us so that we can cooperate with those mothers and those prisoners of conscience who are suffering unjust sentences and who are helpless, many of them, due to lack of concern,” the former political prisoner finally requested.
