The former Cuban political prisoner has encountered the officer who beat him on the streets of Santa Clara when he was serving his sentence in the Guamajal prison.
HAVANA, Cuba. – Former political prisoner Andy García Lorenzo identified this Friday the first lieutenant of the Guamajal prison Roberto Javier Rojo Hernández, who beat him twice while he was on a hunger strike in that prison.
According to the young man, released last July after four years in prison for participating in the protests of July 11, 2021 (11J) in Santa Clara, province of Villa Clara, the officer beat and humiliated him along with another soldier nicknamed “El Indio.”
“I was in a cell where they gave you a mattress at night and took it away in the morning. They gave me a mattress made of wadding, wet or urinated on. At one point, I told the guard [Rojo Hernández] that I was not going to carry the mattress anymore because I was having pain in my kidneys and spine. The answer was that they ended up dragging me, hitting me on the head. They did what they call ‘the wheelbarrow’ to me: with your hands behind you, handcuffed, they put the mattress between your back and your hands, which forces you to lean forward,” the former political prisoner told CubaNet.
Likewise, he assured that Rojo Hernández hit him again the next day: “He pushed me, he hit me on the head, he threw the mattress at me, he dragged me across the floor… I don’t even want to remember that. He was the one who was on guard, in front of the prison that day, and he was the one who was the most angry with me.”
“But it wasn’t just me,” he explained. García Lorenzo points out that, instead of firing a jailer for his mistreatment of prisoners, in Cuba the opposite happens: “When a guard hits and is an abuser, they raise him in grades because for them that is a sign of fidelity, of reliability,” stated the 11J protester.
Shortly after, the young man adds, the soldier was promoted to head of Internal Order of the prison.
“As is usual for those who occupy that position, he instilled fear among the inmates: hitting, threatening, doing ‘the wheelbarrow’, breaking or taking their belongings from the prisoners. Everything is a demonstration of strength and impunity; the green uniform makes them feel powerful,” he stated.
García Lorenzo also points out that the soldier was transferred to El Yabú prison, in the same province. Some time later he learned that he had been punished, although he does not know the reason: “I suppose it was due to corruption. They sent him back to Guamajal demoted, as a simple jailer, opening and closing the locks on the cells, the lowest among the guards.”
According to your Facebook profileRoberto Javier Rojo Hernández studied at the “Marta Abreu” Central University of Las Villas (UCLV). García Lorenzo confirms that he graduated from law school, in courses for workers.
Although he has shared little information on his profile, the photos posted are enough for his identification. In one of them he appears drinking beer in a swimming pool, in another next to some yachts and in a dolphinarium in Varadero, a tourist area in the province of Matanzas.
García Lorenzo says that, after his release, he met him on the streets of Santa Clara: “I recently saw him driving a MININT car. [Ministerio del Interior]. I don’t know if they will have him as a driver too.”
About this meeting, he commented: “I am peaceful, but it made me very helpless, because I couldn’t do anything for what he did to me and other prisoners, because the most likely thing is that, even if he is dressed in civilian clothes, I will be punished if I touch him, because they [los militares] They are protected by the regime.”
Andy García Lorenzo was released from prison for serving his sentence more than four months ago. He still finds it difficult, as he admits, to relate the horrors he experienced in prison because of individuals like Rojo Hernández, who make abuse and humiliation part of the daily routine of prisons in Cuba.
“Yes, I have prison trauma, I feel that I am not the same and I know that it will be difficult for me to adapt after everything I experienced,” he admitted in an exclusive interview with CubaNet upon leaving prison.
“There may be retaliation against me for exposing this guard, but I don’t care, I am willing to assume the consequences. There are many complaints from prisoners against him. He is an abuser, a repressor, that is why I have decided to report him,” he said.
García Lorenzo assured that both he and his family remain constantly monitored by State Security officers, who even follow him when he goes out. Before being released, he was threatened with being returned to prison if he became involved in human rights activism.
