An 78-year-old elderly man, a war veteran and member of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution (ACRC), is dying without medical attention in Guanabacoa, Havana, as the Cuban regime denies him medication and healing supplies. This was reported by the opposition figure and former political prisoner José Díaz Silva, who documented the case in a public post where he demands immediate attention for the veteran.
José García López fell ill with chikungunya and suffered a fall while lying down, which worsened his condition until it became critical.
When activists obtained a medical certificate at the local clinic to present it at the Julio Antonio Mella Polyclinic in Guanabacoa and request supplies for their treatments, the response was clear: "there was nothing."
The irony is striking: according to the whistleblowers, there are warehouses in Guanabacoa filled with medical supplies while sick and disabled veterans are left to fend for themselves.
Today, those who are offering human support to García López are not the State he served, but rather activists from the Democracy Movement (MD), the Opponents for a New Republic Movement (MONR), the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC), and promoters of Cuba Decide.
"It is outrageous that those who once devoted their lives and health to the system are now treated worse than animals, forgotten and condemned to suffering," Díaz Silva wrote in his complaint.
The ACRC card of García López, photographed on his bandaged limb, bears the signature of the late Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque, who was the founding president of the organization for sixteen years.
Díaz Silva is a well-known figure in the Cuban opposition. A leader of the MONR and the Democracy Movement, he was arrested in March 2022 and sentenced to two years of corrective labor. He arrived in Miami exiled on December 24, 2022 with a humanitarian visa, under the threat of imprisonment should he return to Cuba. From exile, he continues to document human rights violations on the island.
The case of García López is not an isolated incident. In January 2023, Rigoberto Sarmiento Guerrero, a combatant of the Rebel Army and founder of the PCC, aged 86, was bedridden for 21 days without medical attention or visits from the ACRC in Holguín. In April of this year, the son of a Cuban combatant in Angola reported that his father’s body had been left unburied for over 24 hours at the Moa Cemetery due to the neglect of the authorities.
The collapse of the health system exacerbates abandonment. The Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, himself admitted that 461 out of the 651 medications in the Basic Medicines List are missing, leaving only 30% of the essentials available. The polyclinics lack basic supplies such as syringes and wound care materials.
Angola veterans, for their part, receive pensions of between 1,500 and 2,000 Cuban pesos per month —equivalent to less than four dollars at the informal exchange rate—, which is insufficient to meet basic needs.
"José García López survives thanks to the solidarity support of brothers and activists, because medications in Cuba are unaffordable for the people," concluded Díaz Silva, who demands from the world "immediate medical attention, medications, and humane conditions" for the elderly colonel.
Filed under: