MIAMI, United States. – The situation of pregnant women in Cuban prisons is alarming, according to recent complaints made by political prisoner Yanet Pérez Quevedo, who is being held in the Kilo 5 prison in Camagüey.
In a phone call Recorded and released by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, Pérez Quevedo detailed the precarious conditions in which her pregnancy is taking place.
“In this maternity area, we have tremendously bad conditions. The washing machine is broken, the gas stove is broken. We have nothing but cold [refrigerador]a television. There are only three fans and they are useless,” said Pérez Quevedo.
The political prisoner, who is only a few months pregnant, also described the situation of another inmate in similar conditions: “Yanisa, a 23-year-old pregnant woman, is living in a room with no water or electricity.”
“Next to the maternal area there is a garbage dump, where cockroaches, ants, and scorpions get in. It’s all dirty. [sucio]there are no conditions for us,” Pérez Quevedo also noted.
Lack of adequate medical care and food shortages are other serious problems reported. “They have taken me to the hospital twice, but they have not done anything to me,” the young woman said.
The Cuban Prison Documentation Center has extensively documented these deficiencies in the Cuban prison system. Raúl Enrique Medina, head of Communications for the center, told Marti News who have recorded “shortages of food and medicine, lack of timely medical care and direct mistreatment as some of the situations faced by pregnant prisoners in Cuba.”
Medina stressed that, although the State is obliged to guarantee minimum conditions for pregnant women deprived of liberty, “this is generally not fulfilled.”
The situation is even more critical for political prisoners. According to Medina, the ideological discrimination these women suffer accentuates their vulnerability: “The treatment they receive from the authorities puts them at psychological and physical risk.”
