Former Cuban political prisoner Daniel Santovenia dies, after 27 years in prison

The Cuban opponent and former political prisonerDaniel Santovenia FernándezHe died at the age of 69 in the province of Matanzas, a victim of cardiorespiratory arrest.

Santovenia, one of the Cubans who spent the longest time in prison for political reasons, spent 27 years of his life in prison for participating in aarmed infiltration from the United States in 1991.

The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights regretted his death and recalled the profound departure of the opponent and said that his fellow captive Pedro de la Caridad Álvarez Pedroso and Leticia Ramos Herrería "accompanied him in his daily life and accompany his funeral today."

Santovenia was admitted to the "Julio Aristegui Villamil" hospital in Cárdenas due to respiratory complications. Despite medical efforts, his fight came to an end, the news portal reported.Cubanet.

Ramos Herrería, a close collaborator and Human Rights activist, highlighted Santovenia's bravery and commitment to the cause of Cuban freedom.

"It is very hard, I was in charge of him since he came out of prison, it is very hard and even more so because I know him well and see how much he suffered and that he never regretted having been imprisoned because he said that it was his contribution to the freedom of Cuba ", he expressed.

During his long stay in prison, Santovenia faced inhumane conditions, including torture and medical negligence, according to his own accounts and testimonies of those who shared his captivity.

In an interview given to CubaNet in 2020, the former prisoner said that among the forms of torture was poor nutrition, which included bread and water with sugar for breakfast; The rice sometimes had worms and the peas or flour arrived with weevils: "You had to eat it because there was nothing else," he said.

The opponent was imprisoned in the Agüica prison when he was released on October 8, 2018.

Santovenia was arrested on December 29, 1991 along with Pedro Álvarez Pedroso and Eduardo Díaz Betancourt, and faced an original sentence of 30 years in prison. The group was intercepted by Cuban soldiers as soon as they landed on the coast of Cárdenas, Matanzas.

"I came to Cuba to fight for the freedom of my country, to give a free homeland to my children," Santovenia told Radio Martí on that occasion from the Matanzas town of Colón, after his release from the Agüica prison, on that occasion. province.

According to a work by Cuban writer Ángel Santiesteban, Santovenia's group was recruited by the National Democratic Unity Party, then led by Sergio González, to create guerrillas and sabotage industries on the Island.

These opponents would form a front to fight against the dictatorship, which they assumed was already in its last moments after the fall of the socialist camp.

Santovenia's father spent two years in a Cuban prison in the early 1960s for participating in the Bay of Pigs invasion.