Holguin/The political prisoner Yosvany Rosell García Caso is once again in the Cuba Sí prison, in El Yayal (Holguín), in an isolation cell, as he himself requested. Four days ago he was transferred from the Lucía Iñíguez Landín Clinical Surgical Hospital, where he was on the verge of death due to a hunger strike, which ended on December 3. In total, it was 40 days without eating food.
“I saw him from afar in a blue Lada belonging to one of the prison bosses, him in the middle and two officers next to him,” said an eyewitness to the transfer, which took place last Friday. The wife of the political prisoner, Mailin Rodríguez Sánchez, declared to Martí News that García Caso’s stay in the hospital should have lasted longer. “Unfortunately, we do not depend on ourselves, but on inhuman people, on people who have no conscience and who do not even value life,” he said.
Likewise, he has denounced that the prison authorities refuse to provide the inmate and his family with the results of the tests they performed on him while he was admitted. The Cubalex organization asserts that this is a flagrant violation of human rights, specifically what is guaranteed by article 53 of the Cuban Constitution and article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, “which directly attacks personal safety and the right to health.”
“Without access to records or details of their condition, the patient cannot effectively file a complaint or initiate an investigation”
The refusal, they continue in a statement published this monday“prevents the patient from understanding their condition, the treatment options and the risks associated with them, from making an appropriate assisted decision and from actively participating in the management of their own health,” in addition to “disrespecting” the autonomy and dignity of the patient.
“Without access to records or details of their condition, the patient cannot effectively file a complaint or initiate an investigation, which undermines transparency and accountability within the health system,” they also indicate.
García Caso became on the verge of organic collapse for the hunger strike he carried out, the most recent of many since he was imprisoned. The activist presented kidney failure and “symptoms compatible with severe organic deterioration,” as this newspaper reported on November 28.
Five days later, he agreed to break his fast, because the prison authorities agreed to grant him what he had asked for from the beginning: to be taken to an isolation cell. In one letter written in his own handwritingGarcía Caso explained why he would go on strike starting October 23 and demanded that he be transferred to a punishment cell, as a “new form of protest,” for the “continuous confinement of all political prisoners.” In his letter, the activist expressed his “unequivocal support for maximum pressure from the United States Government on the narco-terrorist Cuban Government” and concluded with a postscript: “What you do just for yourself fades away when you die, what we do for others is our divine legacy.”
Arrested at his home on July 10, 2021 for being hit with a pot, he was later arrested again for his participation in the 11J demonstrations. Almost a month later, he was transferred to the Holguín Provincial Penal Prison. With an alleged history of drug trafficking, he was charged with attack, public disorder, spread of epidemics and incitement to commit a crime and was sentenced, first, to 20 years in prison and, in a cassation trial, to 15 years.
During this time, García Caso has made many similar protests to denounce his conviction, which he considers unjust and the consequence of an arbitrary process. The hunger strikes he has carried out – six since September 11, 2022 – are, according to human rights organizations, what caused the gastritis he suffers from.
