Hospitalized political prisoner ceases hunger strike

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Hospitalized political prisoner ceases hunger strike
By Cuban Democratic Directorate

Wife of Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta gives a summary of events

Camaguey, March 28th, 2006. Cuban prisoner of conscience Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, confined in Kilo 8 maximum security prison in Camaguey ceased the hunger strike he had begun on March 4th, according to information given by his wife, Ileana Dánger Ardí, via a telephone call to the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

The political prisoner demands an end to the mistreatment and beatings which officials from the aforementioned prison have perpetrated against him and that he be transferred to a prison closer to his residence in Guantánamo, since he currently finds himself hundreds of kilometers away from his home, a distance that his wife must travel with great difficulty in order to visit him.

According to Dánger Hardy, on March 21st, Herrera Acosta asked to call his mother from prison, but he was not allowed to do so. Two hours later, four prison guards who showed up at his cell told him obscenities and proceeded to drag him and throw him head first into his cell. On March 22^nd, he wore a short with anti-governmental slogans. He was taken to the central hallway where they beat him, twisting his arms, but Juan Carlos could not scream because before this attack he had sewn his lips shut in protest of prior beatings.

On March 23^rd, he was transferred to the Amalia Simoni Hospital in the city of Camaguey where his mouth was unsown. He told his wife via telephone that “on the night of Saturday the 25th, an official went to the Amalia Simoni Hospital in Camaguey where he was hospitalized to speak with him regarding his hunger strike. The came to an agreement that Juan Carlos’ situation was inadequate and that they would find a solution to the demands he was making. Juan Carlos told me that he stopped the hunger strike on March 26^th and that if the agreement was not met, he would continue. He would continue the hunger strike for an indeterminate amount of time,” explained the wife of Herrera Acosta.

Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta was condemned to 20 years in the so-called “cause of the 75” in 2003 for his activities as an independent journalist and serving as National Coordinator of Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy in Cuba.

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