Madrid/At least two political prisoners have been transferred in recent days from the Combinado del Este maximum security prison in Havana, Cubalex announced this Tuesday. One of them is Ángel Cuza, transferred to Guanajay, in Artemisa; and the other is Walnier Aguilar Bravo, sent to Agüica, in Matanzas. According to the organization, the authorities allege that there is a list of inmates who planned to stay in the well-known prison.
The version was expanded by the father of one of them, Wilber Aguilar, who, interviewed by Radio Martíraised the number of transfers to almost twenty. “As I understand it, there were twenty, seventeen, nineteen. I don’t know how many they transferred, I only know that I was the only one they summoned me there to tell me that Walnier had been transferred,” he said this Tuesday.
Aguilar claims that he found out after the fact that his son had been sent to a prison about 200 kilometers away from the capital. “I don’t even know when that transfer was, if it was on Saturday, if it was on Sunday. I only know that they called me to the prison yesterday to inform me, something that was not reported to any other family member,” he denounced.
“Do you know how much it costs now to move the family to Matanzas? They don’t care where there are children, separating them from their daughters, who have to stop attending school for a whole day, practically, on the trip, then the visit, then return… Everything is abusive, for no reason, for no cause,” he lamented.
Walnier Aguilar – who has an intellectual disability – was sentenced to 12 years in prison after the anti-government demonstrations of July 11, 2021 in La Güinera, in Havanaone of the poorest neighborhoods and at the same time punished by the Cuban courts. From this area, with a reputation for being marginal, came 96 of the 790 prosecuted for 11J, all for sedition, the most serious crime of which the defendants were accused.
The last four years of Wilber Aguilera have been marked by a fierce defense of the situation of his son and the rest of those imprisoned by 9/11. He has written letters to the National Assembly, has taken the case to international organizations and has achieved that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures to his son “considering that he is in a serious and urgent situation of risk of irreparable damage to his rights in Cuba.”
His desire to make his son’s situation visible has caused many problems for the father, who has been subjected to harassment by State Security in the last four years. Now, distance joins the previous problems.
“They wanted to link my son and me to whether they were going to stand up, where all prisoners always stand up and without consequences. As I understand it, my son denies that he was going to stand up,” he told Radio Martí, although he does not plan to give up. “I’m not going to stop going to see my son wherever he is. As if I have to get to the end of the world.”
Cubalex also reported this Tuesday that the political prisoner Ángel Cuza was transferred on Sunday to Guanajay, in Artemisa, also for his alleged involvement in a possible strike.
Cuza, an artist and independent reporter, was released from prison in May after serving his most recent sentence, but was again arrested in July and taken to Combinado del Este under new accusations still unspecified. According to activist Anamely Ramos, the intention was to “accus him of possession of explosives or something similar. And that it is all because of a small bullet that he was carrying and that he has had for years.”
Cubalex denounced on social networks the measures taken against the affected prisoners, among whom for now are at least these two opponents. “These forced transfers aggravate the suffering of people deprived of liberty and their families, who face great difficulties and high economic costs to be able to visit them. In addition to transportation costs, food and medicine are added, essential given the precarious conditions in prison. The forced distance causes a deep emotional impact, making contact with their loved ones difficult.”
