Balerdi Building, as it stood on October, 2002. Photo by Elodia Basaco, Whittier, California

Former home of Joaquín Pérez, Providencia Sugar Mill, as it stood on May 29, 2000. Photo by Mercedes Diez, North Hollywood, California

Cruel Treatment Revealed at Andrés Voisin's Jail

By José Izquierdo, Grupo Decoro (Decorum Group)

Güines, January 20, 2003 (www.cubanet.org) - A group of inmates confined in Andrés Voisin's Jail, located in Güines region known as Juan Borrell, denounced the cruel treatments imposed on them by officers of such penitentiary located in the Southern coast of Havana Province.

According to Heriberto Correa, President of the Human Rights Movement 10th of December, the convicts are compelled to do forced labor 12 hours a day cleaning sugar cane fields.

Besides, the food given to the prisoners is terrible, lacking protein and fat, compelling the inmates to exchange food for cigarettes with peasants and other neighbors of that area.

Correa had a conversation with several inmates of Andrés Voisin's Jail during their stay at Osvaldo Sánchez Sugar Mill and they informed the activist of the lack of medicines and other medical supplies in the penitentiary and physical abuses inflicted upon them by functionaries of internal order (known by the initials FIO).

Due to these and other abuses, Andrés Voisin Jail is considered one of the toughest jails in Havana Province.

One of those prisoners, called by inmates by the nickname El Nata, told me: “Brother, we don’t know how are we going to face this winter. We are in the coast and it is cold. Many of us do not have blankets to protect us. Besides, tuberculosis is leaving irreversible marks on some and the lack of antibiotics is contributing to the disease’s propagation,” Correa added.

Cuban organizations who defend human rights consider Andrés Voisin's Jail as one of the more unhealthy ones, where Brigadier General Patricio de la Guardia was imprisoned, sentenced by the Government in 1989 to 30 years of deprivation of freedom due to his alleged participation in the events that caused the arrest and execution by firing squad of four high ranking military officers, among them, Tony de la Guardia and Division General Arnaldo Ochoa.