Brenda Diaz, the woman trans sentenced to 14 years and seven months in prison on charges of public disorder, sabotage and contempt for participating in the protests of July 11, 2021, responded this Tuesday to Mariela Castro, director of the National Center for Sexual Education of Cuba (Cenesex ), which last week called it “oversized and full of fantasies” the situation of the detainee.
In broadcast audio by activist Mel Herrera On her social networks, Díaz asks that the recording be sent to “Dr. Mariela Castro Espín” and assures that she is tired of “the fallacies that they have put into her [refiriéndose a la directora del Cenesex] and all the personnel of this country on this prison”.
The young woman, who is in the male wing of a prison for HIV carriers in Güines, Mayabeque, denounces that the establishment is not subject to the control of the national prison authorities “so they can see all the bad things that are here.”
By way of example, he gives the food – “Here it is sancocho, there is no one who eats it” – and the medical attention: “Right now I am flying with a fever, with a cold and with everything, and there is not even a duralgin to give me”.
In addition, he urged his interlocutor to tell the director of Cenesex, a parliamentary deputy and daughter of General Raúl Castro, “that when she comes back, she should make an unscheduled visit” and that she go “through the detachments so that she can talk with the prison population.
“Right now I am flying with a fever, with a cold and with everything, and there is not even a duralgin to give me”
Several weeks ago, Castro visited the prison where Díaz is serving time and pointed out that Cenesex has drawn up strategies to “advise” the Ministry of the Interior in its treatment of LGBTIQ prisoners. Opinions, he declared, have been “very favorable.” Likewise, he added that they are allowed “corporal expressions in accordance with their identity” and they are guaranteed “a very good diet” and even “better than what their families have,” he said.
He also referred to the legal obstacles for transsexuals to register their gender change in the civil registry, a currently very cumbersome process that the regime took advantage of to send Brenda to a prison that does not correspond to her gender identity.
In any case, the deputy assured that Díaz, 29, “is doing very well” in prison, without mentioning that he is serving his sentence in a male cell block and that his mother, Ana María García, has denounced the mistreatment and discrimination that suffer.
It is “little gossip” that feeds a “media show by the press and corporate agencies” to “attack” the regime, Castro snapped in the round of questions and answers at the conference, where according to the EFE news agency, she was questioned about the case. of Diaz. The Cenesex, which shared the recording of the meetingcut off the exchange with journalists during the inauguration of the XVI Cuban Conference against Homophobia and Transphobia.
Ana María García has been blunt in her complaints since her daughter’s arrest. On April 19, in conversation with 14ymedio, claimed that Diaz had been “ brutally beaten by a prison guard”. The woman has systematically reported the harassment she has suffered at the hands of the “repressors” of the Ministry of the Interior.
Díaz’s initial sentence was added to the sentence for “contempt” after, on February 12, he defended himself against homophobic insults directed at him by a guard. Before her claim, the officer assaulted her, according to the defense version. After the incident, Brenda was isolated for 15 days without the possibility of bathing or receiving medical attention.
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