Havana/Leudis Ramos Mejías, a 31 -year -old common prisoner who was serving a sentence in the prison of Bincato, Santiago de Cuba, committed suicide on September 30. The Cubalex Legal Center reported Tuesday that the man, born in Holguin, was found hanged in his cell.
According to the information received by the NGO, Ramos Mejías “had been in a state of depression for several days for a debt within the prison. He feared reprisals of the paramilitaries who control the detachment and asked to be transferred, but his request was ignored.” Not receiving specialized attention or protection, Cubalex continues in his statement, he took his life.
The prison
The prisoner fulfilled a seven -year sanction for a common crime and was held in cell 29 of Detachment 13, the organization detailed, which held the Cuban State for the life and integrity of all persons deprived of liberty, since “it has the obligation to guarantee independent, impartial and effective investigations on each death in prison”.
He also stressed the need to implement urgent prevention measures, including mental health care, effective mechanisms for denunciation and protection, and external supervision of prison centers.
The center also stressed that the death of Leudis Ramos Mejías “confirms the pattern of negligence and institutional violence that we have systematically denounced: inhuman conditions, violence, self -harm, malnutrition, diseases and lack of medical attention.”
With this death, the number of prisoners who died in the country in custody of the state amounts to 33 so far this year
With this death, the number of deceased prisoners in the country in the custody of the State amounts to 33 so far this year, according to the Cubalex Registry, although the Cuban Prison Documentation Center (CDPC) reports 34, of which three were political prisoners (Yan Carlos González, Yasmany González and Yoleisy Oviedo).
In Cuba, according to the CDPC, at least 77 deaths are recorded in custody, from January 2023 to September 30, while Cubalex reported 56 cases from 2022 to January 2024.
Last August, the CDPC public A report in which he informed about 94 complaints related to imprisoned people in Cuba, of which 75 implied some kind of violation of their rights. The most frequent violations incidents were harassment or repression (50 cases), denial of medical assistance (30), precarious living conditions in prison (20), and food -related problems (12).
The CDPC identified at least 46 inmates – 42 men and four women – as direct victims of these violations, and cites 14 complaints that collectively affected the entire population of certain penitentiary establishments.
“The beatings and corporal punishments are still usual practices”
“The beams and corporal punishments remain usual practices and transfers continued to be employed as a form of harassment, particularly against political prisoners,” he said.
As for the sweet potato prison, where Ramos Mejías committed suicide, Cubalex has indicated that it is a detention center where “abandonment, unhealthiness and lack of medical care continue to charge lives.”
The prison has been denounced by relatives of inmates by the alarming conditions in which they keep them, in addition to subjecting them to a maximum severity regime. “The food is insufficient and inadequate. They currently only receive rice or donkey banana soup, without regular access to a main course, which is supplied sporadically,” said the NGO in a report in March of this year.
