Jimmy Johnson Agosto from Camagüey suffers from shortness of breath, chest pain, cramps and unbalanced blood pressure.
HAVANA, Cuba. – For more than seven months, political prisoner Jimmy Johnson Agosto has been suffering from a series of alarming symptoms without the authorities of the Kilo 8 prison in Camagüey agreeing to transfer him to an external hospital for a general check-up, according to what he himself reported in a telephone conversation with CubaNet last Monday, November 17.
The young man, on the list of political prisoners of the Cuban Observatory of Human Rightswas arrested in August 2022 and subsequently sentenced to 13 years in prison for the alleged crime of “sabotage” as punishment for stoning the offices of the Unión Eléctrica de Nuevitas at night, in protest of a blackout that had already lasted more than two days.
For the same reason, he noted, his brother, Lázaro Alejandro Pérez Agosto, was also arrested and convicted, punished with 10 years in prison for the crime of “attack.”
Johnson Agosto said that for more than seven months he has been suffering from shortness of breath, constant pain in his chest, cramps in his left arm and decompensated blood pressure. As he stressed, the doctors who listened to him in the penitentiary center have not been able to give him a diagnosis, and when he asked one of them to refer him to the Amalia Simoni Hospital for a general check-up, he refused with the pretext that “the transfer had to be authorized by the head of the unit, Lieutenant Colonel Juan Miguel Sánchez Duarte.”
Johnson Agosto added that when he raised his claim for medical attention to the head of the unit, he refused, claiming that “it was not free of charge,” but rather that “the doctor had to give the referral.”
The young man pointed out that, despite not having an opinion for his symptoms, the prison doctors prescribed him injections of Truabin, vitamin B complex and Methocarbamol, which his relatives had to buy for him since they are not available in the penitentiary establishment. However, he regretted, after having injected the drugs he has not noticed any improvement.
Johnson Agosto, 30 years old, is a resident of the La Gloria neighborhood, located in Nuevitas, Camaguey. At the time of being imprisoned, he worked as a custodian in a private nightclub in his municipality.
The political prisoner is epileptic and has also begun to suffer from gastritis. For this last ailment, the penitentiary center recommended treatment with omeprazole and metoclopramide, drugs that his family members also had to purchase.
