MIAMI, United States. – Dr. Elioney Rodríguez Alcántara, arrested for an attempt to leave the country and recently released, said to CubaNet that, during the 13 days of his detention, he was “mistreated” and “humiliated” by agents of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT).
“I was mistreated, I was humiliated. I was in [estación de la] PNR of Artemisa going hungry and needy, cold, with little food. (…) I stayed there in Artemisa for seven days; from there they took us to a place that (…) is a place to move prisoners for their municipality. I was there for three days with the same conditions,” said the internal medicine doctor.
Rodríguez Alcántara also specified that he was later transferred to Santiago de Cuba and finally to the PNR station in the San Luis municipality, due to the complaint filed against him.
“In total I was detained for 13 days, in poor conditions (…). I was mistreated, humiliated, like all my colleagues. I feel that my life is in danger, my life and that of my family in this country. They are going to try to fabricate any complaint against me. I am afraid of losing my freedom, I am afraid of losing my life in this country,” he said.
Rodríguez Alcántara was disqualified from practicing his profession throughout the national territory. As he explained to CubaNet, He was sanctioned “for being next to the patient.”
“[Fui sancionado] for me fulfilling my duty, for me being by the side of the patient and giving him the diet that corresponds to him. After I was notified of the ministerial resolution that disqualifies me throughout the national territory from practicing my profession, I wrote to the Municipal Prosecutor’s Office, to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, to the National Prosecutor’s Office… I even sent letters to the minister, I wrote letters to the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz- Cinnamon (…). I never had any response of any kind, ”he lamented.
Finally, the young Cuban launched a request for political asylum for fear of reprisals in Cuba.
Last January, the doctor’s mother, Blanca Nieves Alcántara Chacón, told CubaNet that her son was not a “criminal” but “a doctor, a prepared person” who was being mistreated. “My son is a health professional and they have detained him cold, starving,” she lamented on that occasion.
In addition to being a first-degree specialist in internal medicine, Rodríguez Alcántara is a sonographer and completed a diploma in clinical and interventional cardiology.
