URGENT CALL TO ACTION: THE LIVES OF TWO POLITICAL PRISONERS IN JEOPARDY

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URGENT CALL TO ACTION: THE LIVES OF TWO POLITICAL PRISONERS IN JEOPARDY
By Cuban Democratic Directorate

Relatives form the island make an international call for solidarity

The health condition of Librado Linares García and Alfredo Manuel Pulido López, two political prisoners in Cuba, has worsened in the past week. Their families have made an urgent call to the international public opinion for their state of health.

Prisoner of conscience engineer Librado Ricardo Linares García, General Secretary of the Cuban Reflection Movement, sentenced to 20 years imprisonment during spring 2003, is currently detained in the infirmary of the provincial prison of Cienfuegos, also known as Ariza prison, diagnosed with “epitheliopathy”. According to a statement released by his wife, Magaly Broche de la Cruz, and the executive board of the Cuban Reflection Movement, Linares García has lost more than 80% of the vision in his left eye and the vision loss has begun to spread to his right eye.

“The Cuban Reflection Movement is demanding the Cuban government immediately release Librado Linares García due to the inhumane conditions of the prison: humidity, dust, poor nutrition and systematic stress which worsen the “epitheliopathy” causing irreversible damage in the human rights activist’s vision,” affirms the statement.

Also, Rebeca Rodríguez Souto, wife of Dr. Alfredo Manuel Pulido López, a Cuban prisoner of conscience sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment during the crackdown of 2003, attended the family visit at Kilo 7 Prison in Camagüey on January 31, 2006. She commented the following via telephone to exiled activist Laida Carro, leader of the Cuban American Women’s Coalition:

"I left the visit feeling desperate upon seeing the critical state of my husband's health, who every day more is broken. He continues losing weight and all his pathologies are aggravated, among these, he suffers from migraines so strong that he cannot read or write," declared Rodríguez Souto.

Both families have sought a “licensed house arrest” for health reasons. However, they have yet to receive an answer to this request. The Cuban Democratic Directorate condemns the critical state that these distinguished political prisoners are facing and asks urgently for the world’s solidarity.

Given by the Cuban Democratic Directorate on the 8^th day of the month of February of 2006.

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