Havana, Cuba. – Officials of the 25th Prison Camp 25, in the Pinareña Sandino town, prevent the political prisoner Alexander Díaz Rodríguez from working, as the activist himself denounced via telephone on Friday, April 11.
The 11J protester announced that until the beginning of February he was working in the laundry of that penitentiary center – classified as a “open” -, about five kilometers from the prison of maximum combined rigor of Sandino.
As he explained, on the 5th of that month “the first lieutenant Mario”, agent of the State Security Pinareña in charge of harassing him, approached him to propose to collaborate with the repressive apparatus. Díaz Rodríguez refused to claim that “its principles are not negotiable,” to which the agent ripotó: “You are going to see what they are.”
Immediately after that meeting, according to the activist, he was forbidden to continue doing his job. Occasion to this his freedom of movement within the camp was considerably restricted, because by not allowing him to work, he also does not have permission to circulate through the open area.
Another consequence of this reprisal is that without work the political prisoner does not receive salary, therefore does not have means to move or money to survive when he goes out of pass.
As additional punishment was also annulled the reduction of sanction, as the unit director, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Vargas, informed him, “by order of state security for him there could be no work or benefits in the camp.”
In addition to the foregoing, Díaz Rodríguez denounced that on Thursday, April 10 “the first Lieutenant Mario” was presented at the penitentiary center accompanied by another officer who identified himself as “First Lieutenant Ernesto of Department 21 of State Security.” The latter gave him several strokes and strong slots on his shoulders as he offended him and threatened to provoke him.
According to the 11J protester, while the uniformed shake it, he repeated that they were not going to give work and that he had to “square” with them, that they were going to remove the phone, that they were going to revoke his sentence for a closed regime without the right to visits, and that if he did not “square” with them he was not going to leave prison.
In this sense, the lawyer Alain Espinosa, of the Cubalex Legal Information Center, clarifies that in accordance with the current criminal legislation in the country, “if the only competent authority to dispose of the regression to a regime of greater severity is the court that sanctioned it in the first instance (…), neither the penitentiary authority nor the security of the State can do so can do so and in case it can be done and in case by resolution against which you can establish an appeal ”.
On the act of the military, the specialist also pointed out that “in this case they have incurred at least three crimes: abuse of authority, prevarication and torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” and continued: “This last crime is also a violation of a regulated right in the Constitution and international human rights treaties, and it must also be noted that the treatment to which Alexander Díaz has been A way of aggravating the suffering inherent in the deprivation of liberty, proceeding expressly prohibited in the mandela rules. ”
Alexander Díaz Rodríguez, 45 years old and average technician in gastronomy, is a native of Artemisa province. He was beaten and arrested on July 11, 2021 while participating in the peaceful protest that took place that day in his town, after which he was sentenced to six years in jail for the alleged crimes of attack, contempt and public disorders.
The political prisoner accuses a depouperated physical state due to a cancerous pathology for which he has not received any type of treatment or palliative care in captivity.
