Center for a Free Cuba, February 23, 2021

Orlando Zapata Tamayo died 11 years ago today. Four Cuban political prisoners now at risk of suffering a similar fate.

February 23, 2021

Orlando Zapata Tamayo died eleven years ago on February 23, 2010 after years of physical and psychological torture that drove this Amnesty International prisoner of conscience to die on hunger strike. That prison officials periodically denied him water, during his water only hunger strike, adds to the outrage surrounding his death.

Other Cuban dissidents have died while in the custody of Cuban prison officials. Recently the Center for a Free Cuba (CFC) denounced the death of Yósvany Aróstegui Armenteros on August 7, 2020 following a long hunger strike protesting his unjust imprisonment.

“The Center is extremely concerned for the safety of Yandier García Labrada, Keilylli de la Mora Valle, Josiel Guía Piloto, and Virgilio Mantilla Arango. CFC also recognizes there are many more who are unjustly jailed.  We fear for the lives of these political prisoners, and that tragically another prisoner of conscience perish due to the unduly cruel and harsh prison conditions. The International Committee of the Red Cross has not been able to visit Cuba’s prisons in decades, despite repeated requests,” said John Suarez, executive director of CFC. Today, the Center shared these cases with international human rights organizations in an urgent appeal for these lives at risk.

Yandier García Labrada, a member of the Christian Liberation Movement, has been arbitrarily detained since October 7, 2020 for complaining about poor service at a grocery in the town of Manatí, where he lives. On January 7, 2021, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted a precautionary measure for Yandier García Labrada that they consider is “in a serious and urgent situation, given that his rights to life and personal integrity are at risk of irreparable harm.”

Keilylli de la Mora Valle is a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) who was arrested on April 12, 2020, according to Human Rights Watch for ” not wearing her face mask properly. At the police station, de la Mora Valle began to strip off her clothes in protest. An officer grabbed her by the neck, took her into a cell, and kicked her repeatedly in the thigh and knee.” In a May 7, 2020 trial without legal representation she was sentenced “to a year and a half in prison for ‘contempt’, ‘resistance’, ‘disobedience’, and ‘spreading an epidemic'”, reported Human Rights Watch on December 7, 2020.  The IACHR granted Keilylli de la Mora Vallea a precautionary measure on July 17, 2020 raising concerns that her “rights to life and personal integrity are at risk of irreparable harm.” 

Josiel Guía Piloto, president of the Republican Party of Cuba, is serving a five year-sentence for having criticized Fidel Castro on December 1, 2016. Amnesty International has recognized him as a prisoner of conscience. “On June 11, [2018] prisoner of conscience Josiel Guia Piloto, a member of the Republican Party of Cuba, suffered a collapsed lung after being beaten by prison guards, according to his mother. Political prisoners also reported that fellow inmates, acting on orders from or with the permission of prison authorities, threatened, beat, intimidated, and harassed them,” reported the 2019 State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Cuba. The IACHR issued a precautionary measure for Josiel in 2019.

Virgilio Mantilla Arango, a recognized opposition leader in Camaguey, was arrested and condemned to 7 months in prison last December, 2020. He was “plantado” on a hunger strike for several weeks protesting his arbitrary arrest and trial. Mantilla Arango “was sentenced to seven months in prison for the alleged crime of hoarding.” The opposition activist was previously arrested for distributing historical documents to the population such as the Montecristi Manifesto signed by José Martí and Máximo Gómez at the start of the War of 1895. On Thursday February 18, 2021 he was transferred to Kilo 8 Prison. This fact is concerning the internal opposition and human rights organizations because it was at that prison where Zapata was tortured and denied water, and Arostegui too, both died on hunger strikes.

Yesterday, eleven years after Orlando Zapata’s death on hunger strike, provoked by repeatedly denying him water, human rights violations, torture and mistreatment continue in Cuba’s prisons against both prisoners of conscience and prisoners generally. The Center condemns these practices, demands justice and truth for the victims and their families, and freedom for all of Cuba’s political prisoners.