HAVANA, Cuba. – Prisoner Faustino Laza Ajete has been waiting for more than a year and four months to receive medical attention, according to what he himself reported by telephone on Saturday, August 24 from the Combinado de Sandino penitentiary center, located in the province of Havana. Pine Forest of the River.
Laza Ajete announced that he has been in prison since March 13, 2023. According to him, after a month of being imprisoned, he began to suffer from a fistula with bleeding, as well as hemorrhoids. The prisoner also indicated that since then he has been evaluated three times by the surgeon, who has expressed the need to operate on him, since Laza Ajete has a heart condition and is at risk of dying from a hemorrhage.
However, the prisoner continued, to date the director of the prison facility, Lieutenant Colonel Euclides Reloba Baños, has not authorized his transfer to the hospital to be examined by a proctologist, nor has the prison doctor given him the necessary referral for this. In the meantime, he lamented, his illness is getting worse every day, he is bleeding a lot and the pain is already “unbearable.”
The prisoner also pointed out that in all his time in prison he has only received one change of clothes, which after a year and four months of continuous use is in poor condition. Because of this deterioration, he said, the day before his call (23 August) the prison director imposed a disciplinary measure and ordered him to take off his clothes until he “could resolve” other ones. As a result, Laza Ajete is forced to attend the dining hall in his underwear, “in front of 500 prisoners.”
The prisoner also reported that in retaliation for requesting medical assistance, he was punished by being hung from a ring with his hands handcuffed behind his back.
Faustino Laza Ajete, 35 years old, is serving a seven-year prison sentence for the crime of robbery. According to his statements, before being imprisoned he was selling handicrafts on his own account.
The prisoner also claimed that he was deceived by the instructors of his case, since during the investigation the military assured him that his sentence would be reduced to two years in prison (or even a fine) if he cooperated, but once the case was resolved the uniformed officers did not grant him the promised reduction, but instead he was sentenced to as many years in prison as the prosecutor’s request stated.
In relation to health care, and specifically with regard to the need for surgery, the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela rules) provide: “All prisons shall provide prisoners with prompt access to medical care in urgent cases. Prisoners requiring special care or surgery shall be transferred to specialised establishments or civilian hospitals. Where a prison has its own hospital facilities, it shall be adequately staffed and equipped to provide appropriate treatment and care to prisoners referred to it.”
