PRISONERS WITH AIDS TORTURED IN CUBA

Despite the elaborate international media campaign over the last few years to improve Cuba's image regarding its previous policy on HIV/AIDS (universal mandatory testing, mandatory quarantine) and its shameful policies, all is not as rosy as the propaganda presents it to be. There are no civil rights in Cuba and no rule of law, there are only privileges granted by the regime that can be easily be done away with at the slightest whim ---- today a paladar is legal, tomorrow illegal, and legal the next day.

The following article appeared in a Miami newspaper regarding the mistreatment of political prisoners in a notorious prison in Pinar del Rio province. Although all of the violations reported are worthy of condemnation, I would like to focus on the plight of two prisoners, persons with AIDS (PWAs) who are in special punishment cells because they asked for medical treatment. One of the men has mutilated himself in protest and reports are that both men are suicidal.

Degrading tortures against prisoners with AIDS in Cuba
by Jorge Olivera (Nueva Prensa Cubana)

Excerpted from an article that appeared in Spanish in the Diario las Americas, June 24, 1999 edition

"Havana --- Two prisoners at the Kilometer Five-and-a-Half Prison ion the western province of Pinar del Rio may soon be among the list Two prisoners with AIDS, Jorge Luis Porras, from the town of San Juan y Martinez, and Juan Carlos Gomez, from the eastern province of Las Tunas, are in punishment cells for asking for medical attention according to the Jose Marti Organization of Political Prisoners, a group of prisoners at that facility.

Juan Carlos Gomez has mutilated himself as a protest against the psychological torture that both he and Porras had been a victims of. The document notes that his injuries are serious, and that both men may try to commit suicide."

END

Source: Agustín Blázquez, ABIP

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PRISONERS WITH AIDS TORTURED IN CUBA

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