Mother of political prisoners denounces that the Quivicán prison has no water and her sick son is at risk

Nadir Martín PerdomoPhoto © Facebook / Cuban Observatory for Human Rights

Marta Perdomo disseminated a denunciatory audio this Wednesday through the Cuban Prisons Documentation Center in which she alerted that the prison in Quivicán, Mayabeque, is lacking water, a situation that directly endangers the life of her son Nadir Martín Perdomo, a political prisoner with a serious medical condition that requires constant hydration.

"I am Marta Perdomo, the mother of Jorge and Nadir Martín Perdomo. This complaint we are making is because in Quivicán, in the Quivicán prison, there is no water," the mother stated in the recording. She explained that the shortage could be related to issues with the transport of water trucks, although she does not know the exact cause.

What is clear to him is the impact on his son: "Nadir, when he arrived at the prison, his eyes were bulging out for the water faucet. What is this? How far are we going to go?"

Nadir, 41 years old, suffers from food malabsorption syndrome, gastritis, kidney colic, epilepsy, hiatal hernia, and asthma, as documented by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) in May 2026. His extreme low weight means that the lack of water is not just a deprivation, but a direct threat to his physical integrity.

"Nadir is a sick boy, a boy who is underweight, a boy who needs to stay hydrated, like everyone else, but in this case even more so, considering his extreme thinness," Marta Perdomo noted in the audio.

The water scarcity adds to the conditions that the family has been denouncing for years in Quivicán: lack of food, sanitary deficiencies, and insufficient medical care. The OCDH has also reported on the repeated refusal of the authorities to grant Nadir an extrapenal license despite his deteriorating health.

"On top of that, the other conditions we have—poor hygiene, health, food, and everything else—are bad. So Nadir continues to suffer from problems in that place, when he should already be on parole, when he should be at home," the mother reported.

Nadir and his brother Jorge Martín Perdomo were arrested on July 17, 2021, days after participating in the protests of July 11 in San José de las Lajas.

In January 2022, a court sentenced them to six and eight years in prison, respectively, on charges of assault, contempt, and public disorder. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared their detention arbitrary and demanded their immediate release, a resolution that the Cuban regime has ignored.

Marta Perdomo herself has been a victim of harassment by State Security: she was prevented from traveling abroad in 2022 and was detained in November of that year due to her activism in defense of her children.

In June 2025, Jorge's parents reported that the prison chief grabbed him by the neck and pushed him into an area with sewage, in a prison experiencing outbreaks of hepatitis and tuberculosis.

The conditions described in Quivicán contravene the United Nations Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Mandela Rules, which establish access to drinking water, adequate food, and medical care as basic and non-negotiable standards.

Five years after what she describes as an unjust imprisonment, Marta Perdomo maintains her uncompromising demand: "If the conditions are not met, return my son to my home, return my children to my home, because they did nothing, they have committed no crime. I continue to say freedom for Jorge and Nadir, they are innocent, freedom for all political prisoners."

Filed under:

CiberCuba Editorial Team

A team of journalists committed to reporting on Cuban current affairs and topics of global interest. At CiberCuba, we work to deliver truthful news and critical analysis.

CiberCuba Editorial Team

A team of journalists committed to reporting on Cuban current affairs and topics of global interest. At CiberCuba, we work to deliver truthful news and critical analysis.