A young inmate died on Thursday in a hospital in Santiago de Cuba, due to alleged medical negligence and neglect in the prison, the independent journalist reported.Yosmany Mayeta Labrada.
The victim was identified as Victor Manuel Mengana Figueroa, alias “Matatan” and 36 years old, who was in the Boniato Prison for a 12-year sentence for the crime of robbery with violence.
"He supposedly fell ill with hepatitis in prison and they also took him to work. Three days ago, when he was already dying, they gave him extra-penal leave, even though he had served nine years of his sentence," the family denounced.
He was admitted by his relatives after seeing the deteriorating state of health he was in when he arrived on leave, they said.
"The guards said it was Hepatitis and they didn't give him anything to treat him, until he came one day on a pass and we saw him very yellow, and we decided to admit him on our own," said a relative identified as Michel Castillo.
At the hospital they said it was Hepatitis, due to the poor diet in prison; but it was already advanced and it affected his organs.
"He died without a diagnosis as such and completely yellow," lamented Castillo, who said that the young man was hospitalized at the Juan Bruno Zayas Surgical Clinic, and only after he was hospitalized did he receive an Extra-penal Release three days ago. He had already served nine years of his sentence.
"The prisoners are treated like dogs, they knew that heI was sick and they also took him out to work, and three days ago they gave him extra-penalty, but so that he would die," said the relative.
The young man is survived by a three-year-old girl.
Only in 2022 did the Cuban government acknowledge before the United Nations Committee against Torture that at least100 inmates had died in the island's prisons in the last year.
The figure is detailed in a report presented to that organization, which issued recommendations to stop the death of prisoners, most of whom died from coronary heart diseases.
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