On the same day that diplomats from the Cuban regime staged an act of repudiation against activists denouncing human rights violations at the United Nations headquarters, José Daniel Ferrer released a video recorded in a prison in Holguín showing a prisoner with numerous skin lesions, attributed to bed bug bites, and who reports the lack of medication to treat them.
The opposition leader posted the recording on Facebook and explained that the footage was taken about a month ago at the Holguín Temporary Prison, where, as he reported, the inmates face serious health hazards and lack proper medical care.
"The terrible drama endured by political and common prisoners in Cuba. This video was taken a month ago at the Holguín Temporary Prison. There are thousands of prisoners in Cuba in similar conditions," Ferrer wrote alongside the images.
The recording shows a man displaying various parts of his body, marked and injured, which those present attribute to bedbugs. While the camera captures the condition of his skin, another person insists that the images must be made public.
"Look at the conditions in which the prisoners are here, look at the bedbug, everything is caused by the bedbug, my friend. So that the world can see", is heard at the beginning of the video.
"Look at the conditions the prisoners are in here. Look at the bedbug bites; that's from the bedbugs, gentlemen. Look over here, there's no medicine, there's nothing," he states.
At another time, the person holding the camera asks the inmate to show the affected areas of his body to document the situation.
"Look, gentlemen, so you can see, so the world can see the conditions that the prisoners are in," he repeats.
One of the most concerning testimonies arises when the inmate himself reports that the requested medications never arrive, despite the promises they receive daily.
“Tell them that we are not receiving the medications, that they deceive us every day”, expresses the man, who claims that they are constantly being told to wait until the next day, without ever receiving the drugs.
After the first few seconds, Ferrer intervenes with a broader denunciation of the state of Cuban prisons.
"In the prisons of the Castro-communist tyranny, thousands of common prisoners and hundreds of political prisoners have to contend with infestations of bedbugs, mosquitoes, and rodents," claims the opposition member.
Ferrer states that inmates also face hunger, malnutrition, violence, physical and psychological torture, as well as confinement in punishment cells.
It also warns about the risk of contracting tuberculosis, scabies, and other infectious diseases, as well as the consequences of consuming contaminated water.
"They do not have drinking water in most prisons, and in many, water is very scarce. The poor hygiene affects the majority of inmates. The unsanitary conditions pose a threat to their health," he asserts.
The opposition figure also mentions parasitic diseases such as amoebiasis and giardiasis, along with diarrheal outbreaks that he attributes to poor sanitary conditions.
"In short, the prisons of the Castro-communist regime are a true hell on earth," concludes Ferrer.
The publication coincides with a day of verbal confrontations at the United Nations, where representatives of the Cuban regime protested against an event organized by the Permanent Mission of the United States to address the human rights situation on the Island.
This Monday, Cuban diplomats confronted activists during the event "Cuba Libre: The oppression that Havana hides", held at the international organization's headquarters in New York.
According to Ferrer himself, who was participating in the event, regime representatives shouted "terrorists" and "out of the UN" at the activists taking part in the meeting on political prisoners, forced labor, and corruption in Cuba.
In the event, artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara also participated, released from prison and forced to leave Cuba on July 18, 2026, after five years of incarceration, along with Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat from the Cuban Democratic Directorate.
The episode occurred after Cuba's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, publicly questioned the holding of the meeting, which he described as a political maneuver against his Government.
"Cuba will not be intimidated, blackmailed, or silenced," declared the diplomat, who stated that the event was part of a campaign by Washington against Cuban sovereignty.
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, responded to Soberón's questions and defended the involvement of former political prisoners and specialists who document the repressive practices of the regime.
In that context, the dissemination of images from Holguín adds a concrete dimension to the reports regarding prison conditions in Cuba, one of the issues addressed that same day during the meeting in New York.
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