MIAMI, United States. – Gerardo Díaz Alonso, a Cuban political prisoner sentenced to 14 years in prison after his participation in the protests of July 11, 2021, died this Thursday due to a heart attack in the Canaleta maximum security prison, in Ciego de Ávila. The news was confirmed by activists on the Island, who expressed their condolences to the family of the deceased.
Díaz Alonso, 35, was sentenced for participating in the historic demonstrations that took place in the city of Cárdenas, Matanzas.
“Through this means, on behalf of my brother and the political prisoners of the Agüica prison, also on behalf of my family, I want to offer my deepest condolences to the family of the political prisoner Gerardo Díaz Alonso,” express activist Aylín Sardiña Fernández in a Facebook post.
Sardiña, sister of a 11J prisoner, added: “He died of a heart attack. It was in Canaleta. Rest in peace, poor soul!”
Another Cuban activist in exile, Alberto Fonseca – who also He has a brother imprisoned for the 9/11 protests―, shared the news on the social networkalthough no further details were offered about the specific circumstances of Díaz Alonso’s death.
The prisoner’s death adds to a worrying trend of deaths in custody in Cuba. The latest semiannual report of the Cubalex Legal Information Center, corresponding to the first half of 2024accounts for the deaths of 26 people while they were in state custody.
However, the NGO von considers that this figure “is only a fraction of the total.”
In its report, Cubalex indicated that conditions in prisons remain deplorable, with reports of “torture, cruel treatment and lack of medical care.” The organization also regretted that prisons in Cuba continue to be centers of systematic human rights violations. In that sense, he denounced that the “arbitrary use of punishment cells” and the “complicity of common inmates to harass political prisoners” are recurring practices that aggravate the situation. Likewise, he pointed out that the denial of medical assistance is one of the main causes of death within penitentiary centers.
According to the organization Prisoners Defenders (PD), there are currently 1,113 political prisoners on the Island, of which 116 are women and 30 are minors (29 boys and one girl). In addition, PD warned about the health conditions of 356 prisoners with medical pathologies and 62 with mental disorders.
