The political prisoner José Antonio Pompa López, a member of the opposition movement Cuba Primero, remains confined in "La Polaca," the most severe section of the Agüica prison in Matanzas, despite the fact that the prison authorities themselves have acknowledged that this regime is not appropriate for him.
This section of the Matanzas prison is usually reserved for inmates sentenced to life imprisonment, with family visits allowed only every four months.
His wife, Suarmi Hernández, reported to Martí Noticias that she went to the Directorate of Penitentiary Establishments of the Ministry of the Interior, located at 15 and K, El Vedado, Havana, where they confirmed to her that her husband's situation is irregular.
"He shouldn't be there, that's a violation," Hernández stated after that action.
The woman recounted that for a month she was warned that visits would occur every four months, in line with the regime applied to those sentenced to life imprisonment who share that section with Pompa.
"I was given the visit; I thought they weren't going to grant it to me. Because last month they told me that I couldn't see them every month anymore, since I was on a life sentence —it's called La Polaca, in that prison— that regime is every four months," he explained.
In addition to the visiting restrictions, Hernández described deplorable conditions inside "La Polaca": "The food they are given is spoiled rice with raw corn."
The wife of the political prisoner also requested that the authorities transfer Pompa to a prison in Havana, the province where the family resides, but the request was denied.
The result is that you have to travel about 200 kilometers for each visit, with everything that entails in today's Cuba.
"Look at what time I arrived, almost one in the morning, all by myself. It's dangerous, given the situation in the country. There are many robberies, a lot of violence, because of the system we are living under," she reported.
Pompa López was sentenced in October 2025 to eight years in prison for the alleged crime of “propaganda against the constitutional order,” following a trial held at the Municipal Court of Guanajay, Artemisa, alongside fellow members of Cuba Primero Daniel Alfaro Frías and Lázaro Mendoza García.
In November of that same year, he was transferred from the Combinado del Este prison in Havana to Agüica, placing him nearly 195 kilometers away from his family.
The case is situated within a systematic repression against Cuba Primero, an opposition movement that the regime included in a list of organizations linked to terrorism in July 2025.
This month, a court in Las Tunas sentenced eight more members of the movement to prison terms of seven to eight years on similar charges.
The general context is one of growing repression: according to Prisoners Defenders, Cuba reached a historic record of 1,339 political prisoners in September 2026.
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