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CAMAGÜEY, April 4 (Yoel Blanco García, CPIC / www.cubanet.org) -
Independent journalist Carlos Brizuela Yera managed to smuggle a note out of the
provincial prison in Holguín, in which he denounces the inhuman
conditions in which officials keep inmates.
"The food given the inmates is the poorest, and the mattresses in which
they sleep are filled with grass or are sacks stuffed with some malodorous
stuff," said the note.
Brizuela said he had been on a hunger strike for six days, protesting his
unjustified arrest, and that he had refused the "special dinner" given
prisoners every 15 days, which consists of a small portion of chicken.
Elsewhere on the note, Brizuela says he fears for the physical and mental
integrity of his sister, Jacqueline, whom the political police has subjected to
psychological pressures, to the extent of saying in the last visit that she
would commit suicide if he went on another hunger strike.
"I hold Fidel Castro's government responsible for anything that may
happen to my sister," said the journalist.
Brizuela, 29, was arrested March 4 as he covered a protest staged by eight
human rights activists in Ciego de Ávila, in solidarity with journalist
Jesús Álvarez Castillo, who was battered by police.
Two days after his arrest, Brizuela was transferred to the Holguín
police station and later, to the provincial prison.
Also arrested with Brizuela was journalist Lexter Téllez Castro.
As of this writing, no date or venue has been set for a trial of the eight
activists and two journalists held by the government.
Versión
original en español
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