The prison regulations do not prohibit the passage of food or determine a maximum amount.
HAVANA, Cuba. – Military personnel from the Kilo 8 Camagüey prison prevented inmate José Ricardo González Alfonso from receiving various food and toiletries, according to what he himself reported by telephone on Wednesday, January 14, from that most rigorous penitentiary center.
According to the prisoner, during the most recent visit, on December 24, the soldier in charge of seizing the packages that day – a uniformed woman without ranks, not identified – prevented his relatives from accessing the prison with the gofio, pinol, sugar and toilet paper.
The food of yore, González Alfonso clarified, is allowed in the prison. However, he added, when complaining to the soldier, she claimed as justification that “it was a lot.” It was, in each case, a plastic bag. As for toilet paper, the quantity in question was eight rolls (two packages).
The inmate also indicated that they only allowed him less than a third of each of the food confiscated.
On the other hand, when he demanded that the soldier show him some regulation where the allowed amount was specified, she refused, and instead told him to “go hungry.”
José Ricardo González Alfonso is a native of the Majagua municipality, in the Ciego de Ávila province. Since he is confined far from his home, his relatives cannot visit him monthly but rather every three months, at most. For this reason, he explained, these amounts are not excessive for him, but rather insufficient, mainly taking into account the poor nutrition received by the prison population in Kilo 8.
In this sense, the prisoner pointed out that for lunch and dinner they are served a few spoonfuls of rice, a watery and tasteless broth and a decomposed pasta, apparently made from flour.
Regarding sanitary paper, he regretted that the prison facility does not provide it, since, according to the military, “there is none because of the blockade.”
The prisoner also highlighted that when he asked the head of the unit, Lieutenant Colonel Juan Miguel Sánchez Duarte, the situation was limited to listening to him with an expressionless face and did not answer him.
José Ricardo González Alfonso, 43 years old, is a self-employed bricklayer’s assistant. He has been detained since June 18, 2004. He is serving a 40-year prison sentence for an alleged crime of murder that he claims not to have committed.
Initially, he was held captive in his province of residence and some time later he was transferred to different parts of the country, until he arrived at the Camagüey provincial prison.
This is not the first time that the military has prevented him from receiving this food. A similar ban was reported in May of last year by González Alfonso himself and by the political prisoner Alieski Calderín Acosta. Unlike this time, on that occasion the same measure was applied to other prisoners.
