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A Cuban detainee at the immigration detention center Alligator Alcatraz in Florida reported being the victim of a brutal assault by eight guards on April 2, during an internal protest over the lack of access to phone communication, according to Telemundo 51.
It is about Raiko López Morffi, who was arrested during a routine appointment with immigration authorities and has a deportation order. In a phone call recorded by his family and shared with Telemundo 51, López Morffi described his condition almost two weeks after the events: "My head hurts a lot, my chest hurts, my ribs hurt, my shoulders, I can hardly lift both hands".
The detainee recounted that he was forcibly removed from his cell: "They dragged me out, kicking and punching me until they threw me on the floor… they hit me on the head and all over."
His stepmother, Lisette Champagne, provided more details about the assault: "Eight guards fell on him and started hitting him... one struck him in the eye, and there was even one who tried to strangle him. Other inmates were shouting 'murderer, you killed him'."
This case adds to other reports of beatings and the use of pepper spray in closed cells that have raised increasing concern about the conditions at the center.
After the beating, López Morffi was transferred to a solitary confinement cell known as "the box."
The incident takes place in a context of increasing judicial scrutiny over the center: a order issued on March 28 by Federal Judge Sheri Polster Chappell mandated improving detainees' access to legal representation.
This is not the first time that episodes of violence have been reported at the facility. Months ago, hundreds of Cubans staged a massive protest that was suppressed by the authorities at the center, where there are between 700 and 800 Cubans.
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