HAVANA, Cuba.- The Cuban political prisoner Roberto Perez Fonseca remains in a punishment cell and incommunicado in the Quivicán prison, province of Mayabeque, since last November 28, denounced CubaNet his brother, the Canadian-based activist Alberto Ortega Fonseca.
In a telephone conversation with CubaNetOrtega Fonseca, known on social networks as Albert Fonse, explained that his brother carried out a protest that day in prison.
“He was planning to demonstrate for December 10, International Human Rights Day, because, up to that point, four deaths had occurred in less than a month, one of the deceased, according to what he told me, died with a sign that said ‘ I’m dying of hunger,’” he declared.
According to Albert Fonse, the prisoners are in very bad condition fed and are not receiving adequate medical care.
When his brother went to get an injection on November 28 due to stomach pain from ulcers, he couldn’t do it because “his medications were stolen again.”
“That was when he exploded and took the opportunity to shout ‘down with the dictatorship’, ‘freedom for political prisoners’ and demand both his rights and those of others,” he said.
Fonseca He shared an audio on his Facebook profile by political prisoner Raxades Arias Rosales, where he narrates why his brother started the protest and the terrible conditions suffered by the prisoners.
“They lost the medicines from the first aid kit that his family brought him. This is normal. Samuel Barbería ‘lost’ nine packages of cookies; This month, laundry and sanitary soaps have not been provided. At this moment, the prison has more than 400 people who are underweight, malnourished, with fatigue, we do not have a quilt to cover ourselves, we do not have gloves or pants to cover us from the cold, the beds are full of bedbugs. “We are being victims of repression, of psychological torture,” said Arias Rosales.
According to Albert Fonse, the day after the protest, a political prisoner named Maykel Armando Peña Suárez also spoke out against the abuses. Both he and Roberto Pérez began a hunger strike as a form of denunciation.
Ortega Fonseca does not know if his brother and Peña Suárez continued their hunger strike because they have not heard from them for three days. “I only know that in the prison they were without power,” he added.
Roberto Pérez Fonseca is serving a 10-year prison sentence for demonstrating on July 11, 2021 (11J) in San José de las Lajas, province of Mayabeque.
He was one of the first prosecuted, just two months after the protests. The regime accused him of the alleged crimes of “attack”, “contempt”, “instigation to commit a crime” and “public disorder”. According to his brother, the cruelty towards him is due to the fact that, during the demonstrations, he tore up a photo of Fidel Castro.
On previous occasions, his brother has denounced the theft, by the prison authorities, of both food and medicines and syringes that his mother sent him to be able to administer intravenous Omeprazole.
The opponent suffers from gastric ulcers that have caused him several crises in prison, in one of which he even vomited blood and only received medical attention after protesting. During their time in prison, their health problems have worsened due to the terrible conditions of the cells and the denial of medical assistance.
Albert Fonse said that a few months ago his brother demonstrated in commemoration of the anniversary of the death -during a hunger strike- of Orlando Zapata Tamayo.
On this occasion, he was confined for several days in isolation in a cell with lime dust. There his allergies and asthma attacks worsened: “He will suffer from lung problems for life because a chronic condition developed.”
“My brother’s life is in danger. Since his imprisonment, he has accumulated almost 9 months in punishment cells. This represents around 20% of his time in prison,” he said.
At the end of October of this year, Amnesty International declared prisoner of conscience Roberto Pérez Fonseca, along with the activists and protesters Félix Navarro, Sayli Navarro and Luis Robles. The organization indicated that his imprisonment responds to political reasons and is part of the repression unleashed by the authorities.
