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The United States Embassy in Cuba expressed its concern for the serious health condition of political prisoner Yosvany Rosell García Caso, who has been on a hunger strike for 30 days in protest of his 15-year prison sentence imposed by the Cuban regime following his participation in the demonstrations on July 11, 2021 (11J).
Yosvany Rosell García Caso continues his hunger strike following the unjust 15-year sentence imposed by the Cuban regime for his participation in the protests of July 11th. The inhumane conditions in El Yayal prison, combined with his precarious health condition, are a serious cause for concern. There is no justification for the mistreatment he suffers. He must be released and receive appropriate medical attention, published the diplomatic mission on its official X (formerly Twitter) account.
García Caso, a blacksmith by profession and father of three, was transferred on November 19 to the Holguín Clinical Surgical Hospital after 29 days of total fasting, as confirmed by his wife, Mailin Rodríguez Sánchez.
"An officer called me to tell me that he was transferred, but they did not confirm his condition. Only that he remains in a state of being on a hunger strike", the woman recounted in an audio message shared by activists.
In a Facebook post, Rodríguez thanked for the public support received and acknowledged that the social and international pressure was crucial in achieving the hospital transfer.
Thank you to everyone who has supported and raised awareness about my husband's situation. Without you, it would not have been possible for him to be transferred, she wrote.
The activist and human rights advocate Rosa María Payá also demanded the release of the young man, who received the harshest sentence on the island for the events of July 11th.
Initially sentenced to 30 years for sedition and later reduced to 15 after an appeal, García Caso is regarded by activists and human rights organizations as the political prisoner in the worst health condition among the group of demonstrators imprisoned for the protests of July 11th.
Since his arrest in 2021, he has been a victim of beatings, punishment cells, and isolation.
His history includes multiple hunger strikes and sit-ins, and during one of them in 2022, he even refused essential medication for his chronic heart condition.
Activists from the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) and the Christian Liberation Movement have warned that their lives "are in danger every minute that passes" and hold the Cuban government directly responsible for any fatal outcome.
Yosvany is slowly dying for demanding freedom, they stated in a communiqué.
The exiled activist Edesio García stated that “Yosvany is on the brink of physical collapse. I think about his daughters and Mailin... he could die tomorrow”, while calling for an urgent response from international authorities to what he described as “a slow execution at the hands of the Cuban state.”
The case of García Caso adds to that of other political prisoners from the 11J protests who are on hunger strikes in prisons in Holguín, Matanzas, and Havana, demanding their freedom or better conditions of confinement.
Families report that the regime keeps the strikers isolated and cut off and that State Security is pressuring relatives to break the protests.
Meanwhile, the regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel maintains an official silence regarding the situation, in a context where Cuba is facing a wave of international allegations of human rights violations, extrajudicial executions, political repression, and arbitrary imprisonments.
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