Andy García Lorenzo, one of the 11J defendants in Santa Clara, has been punished again for his activism. The young man was transferred to the maximum rigor prison known as El Pre, his sister, Roxana, denounced this Thursday, after serving his sentence in a labor camp was revoked.
“This is what they tell us, we are not sure of this,” warns the young woman, who recalls that it is not the first time that State Security has lied to the family.
García Lorenzo’s transfer comes just two days after the family will denounce that the boy, 24 years old, he was “in poor health”.
“My brother yesterday hadn’t eaten for two days,” narrates Roxana García in a broadcast via Facebook, in which she says that Andy is currently in prison “in terrible conditions, without food. Most likely, that he hasn’t eaten anything. We don’t really know what is happening to him, under what justification he was transferred, under what conditions, in what way.”
In her video, the young woman addresses State Security and reveals that the family “was preparing” because Andy was going to leave “soon” and they were going to leave the country with him. “You have already shown us that you are going to do everything possible to try to break up the family”, she apostrophizes her, but “there is Andy’s family for a while”.
Since García Lorenzo was detained on the afternoon of July 11, 2021, both Roxana and her husband, Jonatan López, and their parents, Nedel García and Pedro López, have been very active in defending the political prisoners of the 11J and have repeatedly denounced the harassment suffered by the political police.
The young man was sentenced to four years in prison for public disorder, contempt and attack, in a trial held on January 10, along with 15 other protesters. That time in jail he was to spend in a correctional internment labor camp known as El Yabú.
Before entering that center, García Lorenzo could spend about two weeks at home waiting to have all the papers for prison admission, but the joy did not last long: two days after being with his family, he was arrested in the street, when he was traveling with his father on a motorcycle, and transferred to the camp.
According to reports the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), the case of Andy García Lorenzo joins that of a group of opponents who suffer terrible medical care in prisons. The organization, based in Madrid, demanded this Friday the urgent presence of the International Red Cross and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Cuban prisons.
The Observatory alleges having received “information on health conditions that have occurred or aggravated in political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. In several cases, the complaint includes indifference on the part of the prison authorities or the lack of adequate treatment for their ailments.”
In addition to García Lorenzo, the Observatory records the cases of Angélica Garrido Rodríguez, “with facial paralysis after receiving threats and intimidation by prison authorities”; of Maikel Puig Bergolla, who suffers from diabetes mellitus, hypertension and dermatological infection; Félix Navarro, also diabetic, who has been infected twice with covid-19, suffering a drastic reduction in weight and infections from it.
The organization adds to this list the prisoners Yuri Valle Roca, Mario Josué Prieto Ricardo, Dayron Marín Rodríguez and Walnier Aguilar Rivera. “From previous experiences,” he concludes, “we know that spending time in the regime’s prisons has been disastrous for the physical and mental health of many Cubans.”
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
