The Ministry of the Interior (MININT) of the Cuban regime reported this Friday on the prison riot without mentioning any deaths or injuries.
“In the early hours of this Thursday, February 19, an incident occurred that disrupted order at the provincial Penitentiary Facility of Ciego de Ávila,” reads a note that does not clarify the events.
According to the statement, the riot occurred "when two individuals sanctioned for the crimes of Armed Robbery, Theft, and Abandonment of Livestock, Evasion of Detained Individuals, and Illegal Possession of a Bladed Weapon, as well as a series of internal disciplinary issues, together with other inmates with similar characteristics who joined them, committed a serious violation of prison regulations," adds the confusing declaration.
The MININT statement assures that order "was restored with rationality and determination."
"Events like these violate the tranquility of the penitentiary system and will receive the full force of socialist legality for the benefit of collective security," they conclude.
The note neither confirms nor denies various independent reports that claim that the riot was heavily suppressed.
Witnesses report at least 7 dead. Coffins and ambulances were taken out in the early hours of the morning. Shouts of FREEDOM were heard a kilometer away, as recounted in the testimony of a political prisoner disseminated by the organization Prisioners Defenders.
"A young man, almost a child, protested because he was not given food. He was faint from hunger. They beat him brutally. Hours later, he was found hanged in his cell. This sparked the riot in the Canaleta prison," says the witness.
"What happened in Canaleta, Cuba was not an incident. It was a massacre," adds Prisioners Defenders.
Independent media such as Diario de Cuba report that Giorkis Vargas Ramos, a member of the dissident group Cuba Primero, and Yumel Rodríguez Carbó, imprisoned for a common crime, are seriously injured following the riot.
The opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer, who has reported on the incident since the beginning, stated that among the deceased are Walfrido Archival, Pilita, and Eduardo Rodríguez Ulloa, el Chinito de Colorao.
Ferrer stated that there could be around thirty injured, that visits to the prison have been suspended, and that many inmates will be transferred to other provinces.
The riot
Last Thursday, a burst of shouts, metallic strikes, and slogans against the regime broke the silence of the provincial prison of Canaleta in the early morning.
From inside the prison, classified as a high-security facility, audios began to circulate featuring voices chanting “Liberty,” “Homeland and Life,” and “Down with Díaz-Canel,” while denouncing abuses and extreme survival conditions.
The agency EFE confirmed the riot based on reports from the NGOs Prisoners Defenders and the Cuban Prison Documentation Center (CDPC).
A testimony from an inmate, provided to the agency, stated that police forces were dispatched as reinforcements to the prison and that they used "rubber bullets," "pepper spray," and physical violence in an attempt to quell the protest.
According to that testimony, the catalyst for the uprising was "hunger" and "ill-treatment" in the prison, in addition to widespread discontent with the Cuban government.
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