The political prisoner Ana Ibis Tristá Padilla sounded the alarm from the women's prison in Las Tunas about the serious deterioration of her health, in a letter that the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) disseminated on Wednesday.
In the written testimony from the prison known as La Veguita, Tristá Padilla described three conditions that leave her in a state of constant instability: anorexia, chronic asthma, and kidney failure.
"My illness, anorexia, is being managed thanks to your immense support. Chronic asthma and my kidney issues affect me quite a bit, and in general, I am always out of balance," wrote the 37-year-old activist.
To avoid kidney failure, she must take furosemide continuously, but the prolonged use of the diuretic has hardened her legs and damaged her tendons, as she herself acknowledged.
"I can barely walk and I experience daily pain, but I must not stop taking it, as my kidneys might collapse," he stated.
The OCDH demanded urgent medical attention and the immediate release of the political prisoner. Meanwhile, the Cuban authorities have not issued any public response to the allegations regarding her condition or to the request for medical assistance made by the observatory.
It is not the first time that concerns have been raised about the situation of Tristá Padilla. In April, the OCDH had already reported her critical health condition: kidney problems preventing her from urinating normally, extreme weakness, fainting with minimal exertion, and bone and joint pain attributed to malnutrition and lack of medical attention.
The judicial history of Tristá Padilla is equally revealing of how justice operates under the dictatorship. She was arrested in November 2023, accused of organizing a peaceful march that never took place, putting up political posters, and planning to launch Molotov cocktails.
In the first trial, held in November 2024, she was acquitted along with Jarol Varona Agüero due to insufficient evidence. However, the prosecutor appealed the acquittal, the Supreme Court overturned it, and ordered a new trial to be held in Santiago de Cuba, a different province from where the defendants resided.
In that second trial, Tristá Padilla received a 14-year sentence for "propaganda against the constitutional order" and "other acts against state security," while Varona Agüero was sentenced to 13 years. The Supreme Court upheld both sentences in August, exhausting the last avenue of appeal.
The OCDH described the process as "a political operation disguised as a judicial procedure" and noted that "everything is based on reports and interpretations from the Ministry of the Interior and Counterintelligence, institutions directly involved in repression."
The case of Tristá Padilla cannot be separated from that of her husband, Damián de Jesús Hechavarría Labrada, also a political prisoner, sentenced to five years in 2021 after shouting "Down with the dictatorship! Homeland and Life!" at one of the first documented events featuring that slogan before July 11. It was then that the activist publicly took on the defense of political prisoners and became a target of the regime.
His situation reflects a broader pattern of medical neglect in Cuban prisons. According to Prisoners Defenders, by the end of August 2026, Cuba recorded a historic high of 1,339 political prisoners, of which 463 had serious medical conditions.
The overall repressive context offers no respite: the OCDH documented more than 3,000 repressive actions between January and September, with 344 occurring in just the last month, a pace that has already surpassed the total recorded for all of 2025.
"It has been a disastrous month for freedom of expression and independent journalism. The regime, amid its unpopularity, seeks to impose a law of silence, and unfortunately, we believe things could get worse," warned Yaxys Cires, director of Strategies at OCDH.
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