HAVANA, Cuba. – “I’m going to stop, I’m not going to eat or drink water and I don’t want them to give me serum either. From now on you [las autoridades carcelarias y agentes de la Seguridad del Estado] they will know who it is Lizandra Góngora Espinosa; “If I die, I will leave with dignity.” That is the message from political prisoner Lizandra Góngora, sent through one of her sons, Eddy César Girón Góngora.
The 18-year-old young man, one of Góngora’s five children, visited her this Wednesday in the Los Colonos prison, on the Isle of Youth, where his mother is serving a 14-year prison sentence for participating in the protests of July 11, 2021 (11J).
“My words to her were: remember that you are going to raise my children, so I want you strong and healthy. Between laughing and crying he replied: ‘I love you my child, take care of yourself.’ My heart broke and I couldn’t help but cry and worry about what would become of my mother from now on,” the young man added.
As stated to CubaNethis mother called him at 6:00 in the morning this Wednesday to ask him to go urgently to the prison. He attended in the company of his grandmother, Marlene Espinosa Fonseca. At the prison they were able to see their mother. About this meeting, Girón Góngora related:
“My lips were dry and I was thinner than normal. That is, when we saw her, she was no longer drinking water or eating anything.”
The young man explained that the family is aware of the releases of political prisoners from 11J after the Biden Administration eliminated Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
“My mother could be released as part of that, however, in prison they have been carrying out acts of repudiation against her. The common prisoners have been shouting insults at her with the aim of provoking and humiliating her,” he said.
The young man also commented that his mother has been asking for months to be transferred to another prison to be close to her young children, whom she can only see every four months due to the distance, since they live in the province of Mayabeque.
“You could see in her face how much she was mistreated inside, because of the hunger and misery that she is going through, because of this situation with other inmates who are constantly looking for problems for her, all because she thinks differently, because she doesn’t have the same mentality. that the communists have in this country,” he expressed.
Girón Góngora said he was desperate because of the conditions and the hunger and thirst strike initiated by his mother in protest of the abuses and humiliations to which she is constantly subjected by order of State Security.
“I don’t think I’m going to survive long like this,” he concluded.
Lizandra Góngora Espinosa, 38 years old, was accused of the alleged crimes of “sabotage”, “robbery with force” and “public disorder” and sentenced to 14 years in prison. In March 2023, she was transferred from the El Guatao prison in Havana to the Isla de la Juventud prison, where her mother, her brothers and her eldest daughter reside.
She is the only political prisoner in that prison, where she shares spaces with common prisoners. In March 2024, she was diagnosed with a uterine fibroid measuring five centimeters in size. This, together with other medical conditions such as sicklemia and inflammation of the vocal cord ganglia, complicates their state of health.
This Wednesday the Cuban regime began to release 9/11 prisonersHowever, about inmates with greater media visibility such as Góngora, Jose Daniel Ferrer, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Osorbo, have not benefited from the measure, at least so far.
The Cuban regime announced that the releases would occur gradually and that there would be a total of 553 prisoners released, without specifying who they would be, which increases the desperation and anguish of the families. The figure represents less than half of the political prisoners currently existing on the Island, an amount that amounts to 1,161, according to Prisoners Defenders.
Those released so far have not been granted a pardon or amnesty, but have been released under figures such as “extra-penal license”, “early release” or “conditional release”.
The releases occur after a negotiation with the Joe Biden administration in which the Vatican mediated. This Tuesday, shortly before announcing the releases, the Biden Government reported the suspension of Title III of the Cuban Freedom and Democratic Solidarity Act (Helms-Burton Act) and removed Cuba from the list of States sponsoring terrorism. A senior official also reported that the Biden Administration’s decision would have occurred after a promise from the Havana regime to the Catholic Church to release political prisoners.
