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The humanitarian crisis in Cuban prisons is worsening with the addition of two new political prisoners to a hunger strike that now includes nine inmates protesting against inhumane conditions and the repression of the regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel.
The most critical case is that of Yosvani Rosell García Caso, who has gone 23 days without food and is in a state of extreme weakness, according to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH).
The information was confirmed by the Cuban Human Rights Center, as cited by Martí Noticias, which identified among the hunger strikers Walfrido Rodríguez Piloto, incarcerated in the Jóvenes del Cotorro prison in Havana, and Onaikel Infante, imprisoned in Agüica, Matanzas.
Both are joining García Caso, José Antonio Pompa López, Josiel Guía Piloto, Lázaro Piloto Romero, Adrián Fernando Domínguez, Daniel Alfaro Frías, and Aníbal Yaciel Palau.
The labor activist Iván Hernández Carrillo reported that the strikers “are isolated and cut off from communication” and that prison authorities are attempting to undermine the protest by putting pressure on their families. In García Caso's situation, only one visit from his wife was allowed to persuade him to end the hunger strike, “but he remains steadfast,” he stated.
The OCDH warned that García Caso's life is in danger "with every passing minute," and demanded his immediate release and urgent medical attention. Other independent sources confirmed that the prisoner can barely move and needs to be transported in a wheelchair. According to the independent media Alas Tensas, the number of hunger strikers was reported to be ten.
Meanwhile, Pompa López's wife expressed concern over the complete lack of information regarding his health status: “He has kidney issues and has gone eleven days without eating. No one calls, no one informs us of anything. I feel like they want to let political prisoners die,” she declared.
According to the Cuban Prisons Documentation Center (CDPC), between March 2024 and March 2025, there were 1,858 serious incidents recorded within the Cuban prison system, characterized by "extreme overcrowding, massive malnutrition, contaminated water, and lack of medical care."
The director of the CDPC, Camila Rodríguez, denounced that “the Cuban penitentiary system is today a space of human degradation and political repression,” and demanded a strong international response to what she termed “a structural policy of punishment and silence.”
In this context, opposition leaders in exile, including José Daniel Ferrer, called for a demonstration this Sunday in Miami in support of the political prisoners on hunger strike and all those imprisoned for their beliefs in Cuba.
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