Political prisoner Nilo Abrahantes Santiago denounced that three detachments are in quarantine without access to medicines or medical care.
HAVANA, Cuba.- Three detachments of the El Pitirre prison in Havana are in quarantine due to a tuberculosis epidemic. The complaint was made, via telephone, by 11J protester Nilo Abrahantes Santiago this Wednesday from that maximum rigor center, located on the Santa María del Rosario highway, in the San Miguel del Padrón municipality.
Abrahantes Santiago specified that the quarantined detachments are numbers 8, 10 and 11. Their members are without medication or medical attention.
In addition, he stressed that the inmates are very underweight as a result of the scarce and poor food they receive in that prison facility, also known as 15-80. In this sense, he argued that at lunch and dinner they are served approximately four teaspoons of rice, and as a “main course” usually a little tench mince or a flour cake, and on rare occasions a tiny amount of chicken mince. The menu is completed with a “soup” consisting of a kind of watery broth and no vegetables. As for breakfast, the political prisoner highlighted that it is reduced to a small bread and a little watery “juice” that according to the soldiers is made from fruit jam.
He also stressed that the 60 inmates who make up detachment 15 are dystrophic and malnourished, and do not receive medical attention or medication. Regarding a reinforced diet, he pointed out, they only receive an extra bun.
Nilo Abrahantes Santiago, 45 years old, is a self-employed worker (pastry chef) and a native of the Bejucal municipality, in the western Mayabeque province. As punishment for his participation in the protests of July 11, 2021, he was imprisoned and sentenced to five years in prison for the false crime of sabotage. The criminal proceedings against him were carried out in the Popular Municipal Court of Marianao, located at Calle 100 and 33.
In October of this year The prisoner reported an epidemic of high fever accompanied by other symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, weakness and general malaise, which forced the affected inmates to stay in bed for several days. On that occasion, those infected did not receive any type of medical assistance either, since the military refused to take them to the infirmary. When they managed to get a ride, the doctors explained to them that “there were no medicines,” so they had to drink “a lot of water,” or send for the necessary medicines with their relatives.
