HAVANA, Cuba – Human rights activist Maikel Herrera Bones died this Saturday in Havana at the age of 48, after more than four months admitted to the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) with an irreversible illness.
The news was confirmed to CubaNet by his cousin Yoel Parsons Bones, who had been updating on the opponent’s status since his health began to deteriorate.
According to details that the activist offered to this newspaper, after so many claims and complaints, on December 7, the prison authorities granted a “drive” (permission granted to inmates to visit relatives in hospitals or funeral homes) to Dariel Randy Herrera, Maikel’s eldest son who is in the Kilo 5 prison in Pinar del Río.
“Maikel was already having trouble breathing and his kidneys were failing; he hadn’t urinated for almost a day. My cousin died in the arms of his son. Dariel came from the prison, hugged him and immediately he stopped. The doctors had allowed quite a few people in the room,” explained Parsons Bones.
The former political prisoner’s health had begun to gradually deteriorate since his entry into the IPK to the point of presenting irreversible brain damage that kept him incommunicado.
In this regard, the doctors explained to Maikel Herrera’s relatives that the situation in which the opponent found himself is a consequence of the advance of the disease that he has suffered since 2012 and not adhering to the medications.
Precisely on that date the activist was diagnosed as HIV positive, he discontinued his medications and did not adhere to them.
“This adherence is when you take medications consecutively and, in the case of HIV, the antibodies against any virus or disease are strengthened. Since Maikel did not make this adherence, he was exposed to any type of virus (…) Then he arrived at the hospital with a fever. by Oropouche and they say that his health was already quite deteriorated,” he explained to CubaNet Yoel Parsons.
At the end of October, Parsons Bones made a call for support to request a humanitarian visa for his cousin Maikel Herrera, because family and friends considered that in a developed country, with more alternatives, they could help him; Later, the main claim to the regime focused on granting the “drive” so that his son could see him alive.
Maikel Herrera was an activist for Cuban freedom. In 2020, he suffered seven months of provisional imprisonment in the Mayabeque penitentiary center (the so-called AIDS Prison, in Güines) for the alleged crime of attack, and was released thanks to a campaign for his release that occurred at the same time that his condition deteriorated. health.
At this time, the opponent is being laid to rest at the funeral home located on Calzada de Güines, in the municipality of San Miguel del Padrón; His body will be buried in the afternoon, in the Guanabacoa cemetery.
