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FROM
CUBA
Prisoner commits suicide after pleas for
help go unheeded
SANTA CLARA, Cuba - January
9 (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán
Press / www.cubanet.org) - An inmate at
the Villa Clara Youth Prison committed suicide
after prison authorities refused to provide
him access to psychiatric help, said his
sister, adding that he had tried to kill
himself several times before.
Roberto Alfonso, also known as "the
Peruvian," was serving a 45-year sentence
for theft and unauthorized slaughter of
cattle and had been confined to the Increased
Security area of the prison when he killed
himself January 1. It was not known how
he did it exactly, but the death certificate
listed asphyxia as the cause of death.
The man's sister, Ana Rosa Alfonso, said
she had brought her brother's case to the
attention of officials at the Directorate
of Prisons, but, she said, "The answer
I always received from captain Osmany González
was a gesture of dismissal. Every time we
asked him to transfer my brother to a psychiatric
facility, he responded that he was faking
in order to obtain an early release."
Alfonso's husband said his wife's brother
was the fourth person to kill himself in
the Increased Security area of the prison.
Versión
original en español
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