AREQUIPA, Peru – Cuban opponent and political prisoner Félix Navarro Rodríguez will be released this Saturday morning after more than three years of deprivation of liberty in the dungeons of the regime.
“Today, January 18, Sonia Álvarez has been informed that her husband, Félix Navarro Rodríguez, will be released from the Aguíca prison at 9:00 am,” reported on X (formerly Twitter) Cuban Observatory of Human Rights.
Félix Navarro, also a political prisoner of the Black Spring of 2003 and promoter of Cuba Decide, was arrested along with his daughter and other activists after the popular protests of July 11, 2021 (11J). Both were sentenced to nine and six years in prison.
“Concern persists about the situation of his daughter, Saily Navarro Álvarez, who continues to be unjustly detained in prison,” the statement said.
Although a possible release of the activist and lady in white is estimated, the extension of her imprisonment seems to respond to a pattern of “bad intentions, evidencing a worrying arbitrariness in her case,” the publication adds.
For its part, the release of Félix Navarro Rodríguez would mean the end of a long period of unjust detention, in which his health has been endangered due to rape and mistreatment at the hands of the regime.
In mid-2024, the lady in white Sonia Alvarez Campillowife of the political prisoner, once again denounced the authorities of the Agüica Prison in Matanzas for not providing the necessary medical care to her husband, who is 70 years old and suffers from diabetes. The interruption in the supply of his medications had endangered his health.
“Since June 13, they have not been providing him with medications for his illness. We are very concerned because last year Félix had two hypoglycemic attacks that forced the prisoners to run with him unconscious to the infirmary,” said Álvarez Campillo in an audio sent to Martí News.
Álvarez Campillo pointed out that although the prison does not have the medicine that Félix needs, when he tries to take it during visits, he faces numerous obstacles that prevent him from delivering it. “Without considering the distance from the prison and the poor transportation conditions, they tell me that I must return another day to deliver the medicine, a medicine that they have the obligation to get for Félix because he is detained there,” he emphasized then.
Navarro’s wife also blamed State Security and the Cuban State for the lack of adequate medical care in prisons. Álvarez filed a complaint with the Municipal Prosecutor’s Office of Colón, warning about the risk that her husband ran without the necessary medications to control his diabetes in the prison located in that Matanzas municipality.
Navarro, leader of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy, also lost consciousness on two occasions in 2023 due to problems caused by his diabetes. On July 31 and September 14, Navarro had to be treated urgently and transferred to the infirmary after fainting during the morning count.
The announcement of the release of Navarro, a well-known opponent on the Island, increases the expectation that more political prisoners could be released from prison in the coming hours or days after the Castro regime’s agreement with the Joe Biden administration. However, human rights organizations and activists inside and outside the country point out that the number of those released is still minimal compared to the total number of people deprived of their liberty for political reasons.
