Ibrahim Domínguez Aguilar, a political prisoner held at the Boniato prison in Santiago de Cuba, has been suffering from severe pelvic pain for over 12 days, the cause of which doctors have been unable to determine, and he has not received the appropriate follow-up care after being treated at the Saturnino Lora Provincial Hospital, according to his mother, Mercedes Aguilar, who reported this to Martí Noticias.
Mercedes Aguilar had to go in person to State Security to demand that her son be transferred to Saturnino Lora Provincial Hospital, where tests were conducted that came back negative, but the pain persists and the inmate cannot sit or lie down.
"My son has been in strong pain for days. I had to go to State Security to ask them to take my son to a hospital. They took him. They did tests and everything came back negative, but the pain is still there; he can't sit or lie down," the mother stated.
The specialists from Saturnino Lora recommended follow-up care, but the prison authorities have not followed this guidance.
"The doctors said to keep monitoring him. They haven't done anything. I have requested that he be admitted to find out what is wrong with my son. I am desperate, but the lives of political prisoners don't seem to matter. It is necessary for him to receive care, for him to be examined thoroughly. The doctors who saw him, the specialists, attended to him very well, but they don't know the cause of his pain, and the pain continues," Aguilar added.
Domínguez Aguilar was sentenced to 10 years in prison for participating in the protests of July 11, 2021 in Contramaestre, a municipality in Santiago de Cuba, during a collective trial with a heavy police presence and allegations of procedural irregularities, including the alleged loss of evidence favorable to the defense.
Despite having served more than half of his sentence, the regime has not granted him any prison benefits and keeps him under a stricter regime.
His history in Boniato includes a beating on October 31, 2025, which resulted in a wound requiring four stitches on his forehead and bruises. Cubalex pointed to Major Humberto Garcés Tassé, head of Internal Order at the prison, as the alleged responsible party for ordering the attack, and reported that the authorities fabricated new charges against him for "disorder in penitentiary establishments" and "injuries" following the assault, while the Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago de Cuba ignored the investigation request submitted by his mother.
In April 2024, Prisoners Defenders had already documented that Ibrahim was assaulted in Boniato after requesting medical attention for stomach issues and tooth pain, a pattern that Human Rights Watch recalled on the fifth anniversary of 11J.
The case falls within a documented healthcare collapse in the Boniato prison: in 2025, at least eight deaths were reported in that facility, attributed to malnutrition, neglect, and lack of medical care.
Cubalex and the Center for Documentation of Cuban Prisons have also denounced the practice of granting extrapenal licenses to inmates in terminal condition, a mechanism to evade the state's direct responsibility for deaths in custody.
As of the end of August 2026, Prisoners Defenders counted 1,339 political prisoners in Cuba, 458 of whom have serious medical conditions, a figure that illustrates the extent of the systematic healthcare neglect experienced by those imprisoned by the regime for political reasons.
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