Yasser Fernando Rodríguez González, a Cuban political prisoner who has been incarcerated for nearly six years, began a hunger strike at the Augusto César Sandino Penitentiary—known as the Sandino Combined Prison, in Pinar del Río—in protest of the alleged mistreatment he suffers under the orders of First Lieutenant Luis Enrique Polueda Camejo.
According to the case report published this Sunday on the Brito News page on Facebook, Rodríguez González suffers from hepatitis and is not receiving the medical treatment that his condition requires, which increases the risk to his life.
The profile revealed that other inmates at the Sandino Combined Prison are also being "subjected to torture and mistreatment within that facility."
Brito News echoed the call to "respect the life and physical integrity of all prisoners and for international human rights organizations to investigate these allegations."
The photographs of Rodríguez González that accompany the publication date back to 2025, a source confirmed to CiberCuba. However, these images already display the notable physical deterioration that the political prisoner had suffered by then, in contrast to photos taken prior to his incarceration in November 2020.
The difference is striking: he has lost weight severely, has a gaunt face, and apparently also lost teeth during the more than five years in prison.
Rodríguez González has a documented history of reprisals and inhumane conditions in prison. Last May, from that same penal facility, he alerted Martí Noticias about the food situation: "They give us 10 to 20 grams of rice. In the morning, breakfast is a small piece of bread the size of a peseta and a bit of sugar-free soda."
During that same call, he described the main meal as "watery picadillo, pasta with worms, and broth made from the water of the root vegetables," and warned about an outbreak of serious illness among the more than 200 inmates: "There's a virus that they're saying is hepatitis, but it must be anemia; when the defenses go down, anything can get in. Some people have died, others are hospitalized, vomiting and defecating blood."
The organization Prisoners Defenders has documented that the caloric intake in the Cuban penitentiary system ranges from 250 to 353 calories per day, compared to the 2,000 to 2,500 that an average adult needs.
Rodríguez González was arrested on November 25, 2020—on the anniversary of Fidel Castro's death—after posting a video on Facebook calling on Cubans to unite against the dictatorship and place opposition posters to the regime on the facade of his house in the Los Sitios neighborhood of Havana. He was charged with "acts against state security" and "incitement to rebellion," and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
As an expression of his convictions, he tattooed the phrase "Down with the Castros and the communist thugs who govern in Cuba" on his abdomen.
This is not the first act of retaliation he has suffered. In August 2021, guards from Combinado del Este organized a repudiation rally against him, isolated him in a punishment cell, and confiscated all his belongings, including soap, toothbrush, and toothpaste. In March 2022, he reported beatings and threats in Valle Grande prison, where the head of internal security threatened to "make him disappear" for informing the independent press.
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