The Cuban Prisons Documentation Center (CDPC), an organization based in Mexico, recorded 79 human rights violations and collected information on at least four deaths in prisons on the Island during September, according to its monthly report.
The non-governmental organization documented "a portrait of deterioration in Cuban prisons, primarily characterized by the denial of medical care, poor nutrition, restrictions on communication, and the deaths of incarcerated individuals," the text states.
The reports come from 34 detention centers — prisons, forced labor camps, and correctional instruction centers — spread across 12 provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud.
The provinces with the highest concentration of incidents were Camagüey, Havana, and Mayabeque. The prisons most mentioned in the report were Kilo 8 and Kilo 7 in Camagüey, and the Quivicán prison in Mayabeque.
A total of 72 individuals were affected: 68 men and four women. An additional 23 complaints described situations that impacted the entire population of the same establishment.
By categories, the denial of medical care tops the list with 27 reports, followed by health status (26), nutrition (19), communication restrictions (15), and transfers (9).
Deaths of inmates: complaints about lack of medical attention and hunger
One of the cases is that of political prisoner Florentino Morono Torres, confined in the provincial prison of Las Tunas. He suffered a heart attack in his cell on September 18 without receiving timely medical attention and died two days later at the Dr. Ernesto Guevara General Teaching Hospital in that city.
The common prisoner Reinier Ramírez Domínguez passed away in the Calixto García hospital in Havana, 17 days after being granted an extrapenal license. The CDPC states that "his health had already been severely compromised due to inadequate medical care in prison."
CDPC summons the opponent José Daniel Ferrer, who disseminated a note received from the Mar Verde Prison in Santiago de Cuba, in which an inmate reported the deaths from hunger of Denisen Omar Sierra and a prisoner identified as Abelito. Relatives of inmates in that prison have reported extreme hunger, overcrowding, and contaminated water.
"In addition to the individual cases, the source mentions another ten prisoners in critical condition due to lack of food and severe malnutrition, information that the CDPC is investigating to understand the situation of each inmate," the report specifies.
An independent journalist and political prisoners
The report identifies political detainees and those suffering from chronic or infectious diseases—such as tuberculosis, diabetes, asthma, psoriasis, and HIV—as the most frequent victims.
Among the inmates with the most recorded events is the independent journalist Henry Constantín, director of La Hora de Cuba, who was arrested in Camagüey in September and transferred to the Kilo 7 maximum-security prison at the beginning of October. Also mentioned are the political prisoners Roberto Pérez Fonseca and Vladimir Castillo Llanes, in Quivicán, and Ediolvis Marín Mora, in Kilo 7.
The CDPC also documented reprisals against those who protest the conditions of incarceration: suspension of visits and phone calls, punitive cells, and beatings.
An underreporting in an opaque system
The organization warns that its figures represent "an underreporting of the actual events and victims" and attributes this limitation to "the systematic opacity of the Cuban regime," which does not publish prison mortality statistics nor allows access to independent observers.
The CDPC report comes just days after Cubalex documented 12 deaths under state custody during the same month of September —the highest monthly number since February 2026— including eight in prisons, two released individuals who died shortly after their release, and two recruits from the Mandatory Military Service. Both organizations use different methodologies and their counts should not be combined, but they agree in pointing to medical negligence and hunger as the main causes.
On the other hand, Prisoners Defenders recorded a new high of 1,372 political prisoners in Cuba as of October 1st, surpassing the previous maximum from August.
Between March 2024 and March 2025, the CDPC itself recorded 60 deaths in Cuban prisons and 1,330 violations of rights, including 402 cases of denial of medical care and 224 cases of food deficiencies.
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