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The Cuban political prisoner Yasmany González Valdés published this Monday, during his first prison visit in three years, images of before and after his entry into the Combinado del Este that show an alarming physical deterioration: from an athletic and muscular build to extreme thinness with a gaunt face and very thin arms.
"I don't think it needs saying because the images speak louder than words," wrote González Valdés from his wife's profile Ilsa Ramos.
The activist and rapper is serving a four-year sentence imposed in February 2024 after being accused of "propaganda against the constitutional order" for painting anti-government graffiti on walls in Havana, including "I don't vote in a dictatorship. The 75 live," referring to the prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003. His wife described that process as a "judicial circus."
The deterioration shown in the images does not surprise those who have followed his case. In September 2025, Ilsa Ramos described her husband as “a skeleton”: sunken face, arms like “two sticks,” pants that were slipping due to extreme thinness, and missing teeth, as he was never able to complete the dental treatment he had paid for before being arrested.
Months earlier, a drastic reduction in food rations for inmates at Combinado del Este, Cuba's largest prison, had been reported, which has repeatedly been highlighted by human rights organizations as a center for torture and cruel treatment against opponents.
In his post, González Valdés clarified that he is not free: "I am not at liberty, but rather under minimum conditions. For now, I am working to show you that I am not a criminal, that I am a man of work, that I am not a murderer or a common thief, but a POLITICAL PRISONER even if they do not recognize me as such."
He also issued a direct warning to the regime: "If I am revoked for this publication, you will see the repression against those who speak the truth become even more evident."
In the photographs, he is wrapped in the Cuban flag, with his index finger raised in a defiant gesture, and has tattoos on his back reading "Free or Martyr," "P11·75," and the date "20-4-2023," the day of his arrest.
González Valdés called on the international community to "look into the matter thoroughly," and mentioned his "brothers from 11J and all those serving sentences for exercising their right to strike or for any type of right such as freedom of expression." He quoted José Martí: "The bodies of martyrs are the most beautiful altar of honor."
The persecution against González Valdés began even before his final detention. In April 2022, he was fined under Decree Law 370 for posting complaints against the regime on social media, and that same year he was arrested while attempting to protest in front of the Supreme Court in solidarity with the 11J prisoners. After his arrest in 2023, he was initially transferred to Villa Marista for a month before being taken to Combinado del Este.
His case is part of a repression that does not relent. Prisoners Defenders recorded 1,192 political prisoners in Cuba in December 2025, a historic record, and González Valdés is among the 17 Cuban artists who remain imprisoned.
After the publication of the pass, Ilsa Ramos reported that they cut off internet access: "They cut off my internet, for now I can't do anything, it seems what my husband Yasmany González Valdés said carries a lot of weight."
The conditions in Cuban prisons have worsened in the context of the economic crisis: inmates and their families have reported fearing for their lives due to outbreaks of diseases, beatings, and documented deaths in custody in 2026.
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