Havana/After several days on hunger strike, the young political prisoner Duannis León Taboada, 26, deposed his protest after receiving a family visit in the hospital where he is hospitalized. The news was confirmed by his mother in a shared testimony with 14ymedioin which he reported the moments of the reunion and the delicate state of health of his son.
“It entered a little later than the agreed schedule, but it was achieved,” said Duannis’s mother. “I could see it, there was a meeting where I first attended with my daughter -in -law, then my other part of the family, my mother and my cousin.” The family visit was key to convincing the young man to put an end to the strike, initiated more than a week ago as a form of protest for his prison situation.
The family visit was key to convincing the young man to put an end to the strike
“Best of all, it deposed the strike. We achieve it among all and will be maintained in the hospital to follow up the kidney,” said the mother. Visibly affected by the strike, the young man had lost weight in a alarming way. “I saw it with enough weight loss,” he added cautiously.
León Taboada was arrested during the peaceful manifestations of July 11, 2021, which shook more than 40 locations throughout Cuba in demand for freedom, economic improvements and the end of repression. The young man was sentenced to four years of deprivation of liberty for the alleged crimes of contempt, public disorders and propagation of epidemics. At the time of his arrest, he was only 22 years old.
Your mother, desperate, demanded that the authorities That would be allowed to see it. “I need you to let me in, to see it, and that he knows that I am there. If possible, depose the strike,” he said in previous days.
“He doesn’t want to die, but he is willing to reach the end if it is the only way to listen to him.”
The strike had been initiated as a form of peaceful resistance against prison conditions and the treatment he receives from the Cuban judicial system. Duannis, like many other political prisoners, has denounced abuse, deprivation of visits, and arbitrary punishments. “He doesn’t want to die, but he is willing to get to the end if it is the only way to listen to him,” said his mother in previous statements.
The case of Duannis has been denounced by various human rights defenders, both on and off the island. The Cubalex Legal Information Center and the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights have included its name in lists of prisoners of consciousness, and urged the Cuban government to guarantee its physical integrity and its right to manifest peacefully.
The young man’s mother, who has led a constant campaign in defense of his son since he was imprisoned, thanked the support received. “We achieved it among all,” he reiterated, referring to the pressure exerted by relatives, activists and citizens on social networks.
“He needs attention, and needs justice”
The relief for the suspension of the strike does not erase the concern for the health and legal situation of Duannis. Your family expects medical tracking to allow full recovery and that channels are opened to review your case. “He needs attention, and needs justice,” his mother concluded.
This case adds to a long list of young people who participated in the protests of July 11 and who still serve long sentences for exercising their right to free expression. Although some have received benefits such as measures of measure or bail release, many others remain in prisons without regular access to visits or procedural guarantees.
The testimony of the mother of Duannis León is also the reflection of the drama of dozens of Cuban families who suffer from state repression not only in court, but also in bureaucratic silences and the arbitrariness of the penitentiary system.
