The young Yoendris Tornes Núñez was serving a sentence of five months of correctional work with confinement in the La Lima penitentiary.
HAVANA, Cuba. – “It pains me to tell this, but my son appeared in prison hanged. I know, as a mother, that he would not have the courage to commit suicide and I do not understand how it happened,” denounced Yadiris Núñez, mother of Yoendris Tornes Núñez, a 20-year-old young man who was held in the La Lima prison camp, in Guanabacoa, Havana.
In a telephone conversation with CubaNetYadiris Núñez, who is in Brazil, reported that his son was serving a five-month sentence of correctional work with confinement. “Last year, while out with their friends for their birthday, the police stopped them and detained them because they said they were smoking.” [drogas]. In the end, my son was the only one prosecuted because at that moment he ran away to avoid being arrested,” the mother explained.
“He had good behavior, that’s why they reduced his sanction and he went out to work every day in Communal brigades in Havana, but that day [el día que murió] It didn’t go, it seems because of transportation problems,” he said.
According to Núñez’s story, on the morning of October 21, his sister brought his son lunch, “like every day.” “She saw him sad and a little strange; she asked him what was wrong, but he didn’t say anything.” As soon as he had lunch, the aunt left and the young man asked permission to go to the bathroom. It was the last time they saw him.
“Around 5:00 in the afternoon they called my sister from Comunales to tell her that the child had run away. The next day, she went in the morning [a La Lima] and they continued searching. About half an hour after my sister arrived home, they called her to tell her to go there urgently; When he returned, my son was hanging in that place, with a one and a half meter cable with four knots in his throat,” he described.
“I don’t understand, if they have only one entrance and exit, why didn’t they look for him before? The authorities did not even report his escape. Since the prison did not give any explanations, my sister went to the Directorate of Jails and Prisons to present the complaint – of which they did not receive a written record. At the moment, they are investigating, but they recognize that the case is very strange,” he added.
The young man was buried on October 23 without his family being allowed access to the autopsy report, Núñez said. “They only told his father that he was not on drugs, that he was clean; but we have the right to know the cause of death,” he added.
The mother also denounced corruption in the prison camp. As he explained, “there is tremendous audacity there, they sell drugs and do business.” Likewise, he stated that prisoners who have been incarcerated for the longest time abuse new arrivals.
Nunez has reported what happened on various social media platforms. Because of this, he claims that in La Lima a captain, whose name he could not remember, warned that they would prevent him from entering Cuba if he continued to pursue the complaints.
“I just want justice for my son, for things to be clear because I don’t believe he committed suicide; I’m not going to rest until I know what happened and, if I can’t enter Cuba, I don’t care because my life was my son,” she said.
At least 60 people deprived of liberty died in the custody of the Cuban State between March 2024 and March 2025. according to the second annual report of the Cuban Prison Documentation Center (CDPC), a program of the civil association Initiative for Research and Advocacy. The report specifies that 47 of the deaths are linked to physical or mental health problems and lack of timely care, and seven to direct physical violence.
The CDPC adds that, in some of the 60 deaths, relatives were unable to access the bodies or the forensic reports, violating international protocols applicable to potentially unlawful deaths.
