URGENT APPEAL FOR THE LIFE OF CUBAN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS CONFINED IN A PRISON FOR CONVICTS SUFFERING FROM HIV. Coalition of Cuban-American Women.
10-02-2017
CUBA
URGENT APPEAL FOR THE LIFE OF A CUBAN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER CONFINED IN A PRISON FOR CONVICTS SUFFERING FROM HIV February 9, 2017
Yaquelin Heredia Morales
Yaquelin Heredia Morales is a Cuban human rights defender, a Lady in White and a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) who remains arbitrarily in prison without a trial date since April 15, 2016 when she protested the unlawful search, by a policeman, of another Lady in White at Havana’s Fraternidad Park. Yaquelin was accused of committing contempt, assault and damage. The activist, who suffers from HIV, was transferred to the San Jose de Las Lajas Prison for convicts with Aids in the Province of Mayabeque, near Havana, where her life is presently in danger.
Yaquelin, who has suffered brutal beatings at the hands of the political police before her arrest to the point that she has fainted, is facing a serious health relapse. Authorities at the San Jose Prison for prisoners with HIV are not providing her with the necessary medication for her condition where she is being mistreated and repressed because she is a dissenter of the Cuban regime. Yaquelin is affected with constant fever, weight loss and has contracted tuberculosis as well as pneumonia, and her kidneys are not functioning properly.
Yaquelin’s family is not being informed of her critical condition and in a phone call to the UNPACU activist Zaqueo Baez (who recorded the call), she asks solidarity from her colleagues and the world, making it clear that she is being unjustly held for her ideas and that she is feeling extremely ill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vp0H7YFMKw
Though Yaquelin was informed that she would be transferred to the Hospital of the Combinado del Este Prison due to her critical condition, she was eventually told by prison authorities that it was not possible because there was no means of transportation available.
Reinier Rodríguez Mendoza
Another UNPACU activist, Reinier Rodriguez Mendoza, who is confined at the same prison of San Jose de Las Lajas under the same deplorable conditions, denounced the systematic human rights violations and deaths endured by HIV patients there including his case and that of Yaquelin Rodriguez Mendoza: (facebook) https://www.facebook.com/newscubanas.post/videos/1874998846079853/
The Coalition of Cuban-American Womenmake the Cuban government responsible for the physical and mental well-being of all members of the peaceful human rights movement who struggle on behalf of freedom and justice for the Cuban people. The lives of these human rights defenders and their families in Cuba are in danger. We urgently ask ongoing solidarity from the international community for Yaquelin Heredia Morales and Reinier Rodriguez Mendoza.
Sincerely,
Laida A. Carro Human Rights Defender Coalition of Cuban-American Women joseito76@aol.com
Yaquelin on phone from prison with Zaqueo Báez from UNPACU (Spanish)