Cuban activist Angélica Garrido has spent more than 50 days in a punishment cell in the Guatao prison in Havana. Luis Rodríguez Pérez, her husband and brother-in-law of the writer María Cristina Garrido, imprisoned along with her sister for participating in the 11J protests, denounced that, according to the Island’s Penal Code, no woman can be confined for more than 10 days in these cubicles.
After a visit made this Saturday, Rodríguez posted on Facebook that Angélica Garrido is in absolutely unsanitary conditions, exposed to lice and scabies, and with frogs inside the cell.
“In that cell, the water that she has to collect, to bathe and to drink, [es la de] a small tube that comes out and is a few centimeters from the latrine, that is, from the little hole in the floor where she relieves herself; as they mix there”, Rodriguez lamented on Radio Marti.
He added that he had brought him some medication against lice, because in his cell, “the smallest and roughest of all”, the lack of hygiene continues to deteriorate his health. His wife pointed out that his “freedom brothers” and his religious beliefs give him strength to resist prison.
Rodríguez reviled the Cuban diplomats who defend the regime in the United Nations dressed luxuriously, while the political prisoners suffer the worst conditions
In his message, Rodríguez reviled the Cuban diplomats who defend the regime in the United Nations dressed luxuriously, while the political prisoners suffer the worst conditions in the prisons.
Via another message, published this Tuesday, Rodríguez also said that his sister-in-law, María Cristina Garrido, was tortured in the prison of San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque. To the call off the strike that the sisters had maintained, María Cristina was separated from Angélica –who remained in the punishment cell of the Technical Investigation Department– and beaten.
When she arrived at the prison, the man says, the officers who were driving her made her fall to the ground several times, “sweeping her feet”, with damage to her spine. There was no violent reaction on the part of María Cristina, which caused the police to redouble their aggression and shouting at her.
She was taken to the “patio where the cells converge” and they demanded that she shout slogans such as “Long live Díaz-Canel!” and “Viva Raúl”, but Garrido refused. They beat her again “very hard in the face.” She was then transported to a cubicle where she had to sleep standing up and bent over, and they repeated the beatings the next day, Rodríguez Pérez denounces.
Angélica and Maria Cristina Garrido have suffered a notable deterioration in their health for several months, as have other prisoners of conscience such as the activist Lizandra Góngora. Rodríguez has transmitted on several occasions the messages that his wife, his sister-in-law and Góngora have sent to those who are pending his criminal situation.
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