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The political prisoner Yosvany Rosell García Caso was transferred to intermediate care after more than 30 days on a hunger strike without medical assistance.
“The doctor told me that they had decided to transfer him to intermediate care due to the many days he has gone without eating, and thus, anything could lead him to intensive care,” said his wife Mailín Sánchez to Martí Noticias this Sunday.
Rosell García Caso was hospitalized in the Prison Ward of the Clinical Surgical Hospital of Holguín.
"He is aware and refuses to be medicated or touched. He maintains his hunger strike stance. The doctor says that if he does not consent, he will not receive parental nutrition through the vein," Sánchez explained.
The woman said that, according to the doctors, "when he is unconscious, then the family members have to authorize any treatment."
"I am indeed willing to sign because I care about my husband's well-being. We are asking him to allow the doctors to attend to him, to take his blood pressure, even if the strike continues, but he doesn't want to; he refuses," she reported.
A guard from the Penitentiary Ward of the hospital confirmed to Martí Noticias that the hunger striker had been moved to intermediate care.
On Friday, the Embassy of the United States in Cuba expressed its concern for the serious health condition of Rosell García Caso, who has been on a hunger strike for 32 days in protest of his 15-year prison sentence imposed by the Cuban regime following his participation in the demonstrations of 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 on July 11. The inhumane conditions in the El Yayal prison, along with his precarious health, are a serious cause for concern. There is no justification for the mistreatment he is suffering. He must be released and receive proper medical attention," the diplomatic mission published on its official X account (formerly Twitter).
García Caso, a blacksmith by profession and father of three, was transferred on November 19 to the Clinical Surgical Hospital of Holguín after 29 days of complete fasting.
Initially sentenced to 30 years for sedition and later to 15 years 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 11J protests.
Since his arrest in 2021, he has been a victim of beatings, punishment cells, and isolation.
His history includes multiple hunger strikes and protests, and during one of them in 2022, he even refused essential medication for his chronic heart condition.
Activists from the Cuban Observatory of 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.
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