HAVANA, Cuba. – Cuban political prisoner Roberto Pérez Fonseca has not eaten for more than two days due to pain caused by several ulcers. However, he has not received medical care in the Quivicán prison (Mayabeque), where he is serving his sentence, he said in statements to the Cuban newspaper CubaNet his brother, Canadian-based activist Alberto Ortega Fonseca.
Ortega Fonseca also explained that they learned about his brother’s situation from a relative of another political prisoner who called his mother.
For almost a week, his mother, Liset Fonseca, has had no news of her son. When she received information about his situation, she tried to ask the authorities for an explanation, but her efforts yielded no results.
Roberto Pérez Fonseca is serving a 10-year prison sentence for protesting on July 11, 2021 (11J) in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque province. He was one of the first to be prosecuted, just two months after the protests. The regime accused him of the alleged crimes of “attack,” “contempt,” “incitement to commit a crime,” and “public disorder.” According to his brother has reportedthe cruelty towards him is due to the fact that, during the protests, He tore up a photo of Fidel Castro.
Alberto Ortega Fonseca commented that the recent escalation of repression against his brother is due to his constant complaints from prison, for which he has been taken to punishment cells on several occasions and even beaten by his jailers.
On August 22, Ortega Fonseca said that, once again, the military had stolen from his brother “some syringes” that his mother had obtained to administer intravenous Omeprazole to him “when he has a crisis due to his stomach ulcers.”
From the belongings that his mother tried to give him, they also stole bags of milk and other foods necessary for his health and nutrition problems in prison.
Perez Fonseca He suffers from gastric ulcers that have caused him to have several crises in prison, in one of which he even vomited blood and only received medical attention after protesting.
“His health is delicate, with increasingly frequent stomach and asthma crises, the result of multiple punishments in solitary confinement, the last one around July 11. All of this is part of a calculated strategy by Cuban State Security,” the brother denounced.
He also warned that Pérez Fonseca was isolated from his closest companions to eliminate witnesses in case something serious happened to him.
“My brother is being made to suffer and slowly killed. It is all the work of Department 21” [oficiales de la Seguridad del Estado que atienden a ‘contrarrevolucionarios’] and his lackeys,” he added.
