The political prisoner Ángel Serrano Hernández, sentenced to 14 years in prison for participating in the protests of July 11, 2021, was transferred to the 15-80 prison —known as "Pitirre," a maximum-security facility in Havana— and subjected to a more severe penitentiary regime after being beaten by guards and officers at the La Lima correctional facility in the Havana municipality of Guanabacoa.
The facts came to light through a clandestine letter sent by Serrano himself from the prison, in which he categorically denies the version that State Security had previously communicated to his relatives.
Cuban authorities stated that Serrano refused to comply with a work order at the La Guayaba farm, abandoned training in front of the unit chief to shout slogans against the regime, and that his injuries —including a severely swollen eye— were self-inflicted by deliberately hitting himself against the walls and punching himself in the face.
His nephew, Janry Serrano, dismissed that account in statements to Martí Noticias and described what actually happened according to the information that came from the prison.
"They have him isolated. We didn’t know what had actually happened because we only had the version from the political police. They hit him in the eye and abused him just for saying he didn’t want to work there, because it’s forced labor. My uncle is almost 60 years old. He started expressing his disagreement with this system and shouted phrases about what he thinks. Many people in Cuba feel the same way today," Serrano declared.
The letter sent clandestinely from prison confirms that the physical assaults came from the guards, not from him, and that the trigger was his refusal to perform forced labor—citing his age, close to 60 years—and his verbal rejection of the regime during a roll call.
Currently, Serrano remains isolated from the rest of the inmate population in prison 15-80, cut off from communication and without his family being able to independently verify his health status.
The case is part of a documented pattern of repression against the 11J political prisoners, which includes beatings, punishment cells, arbitrary transfers, and denial of medical attention.
Serrano was imprisoned for his involvement in the protests in the La Güinera neighborhood, one of the most violent epicenters of the July 11 events in Havana, where Diubis Laurencio Tejeda was killed and around 96 residents were prosecuted.
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