Union Man in Jail without Medical Attention

Víctor Manuel Domínguez, Lux Info Press

Havana, September 9, 2004 - (www.cubanet.org) - Authorities in the maximum security prison of Agüica in Matanzas Province, are denying, since last March 30, the services of an orthopedic doctor, requested by the conscience prisoner Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, suffering strong pains in arms and back, his relatives revealed this Monday to Lux Info Press.

Galván Gutiérrez sentenced to 26 years in jail in sentence number 12 of 2003, has severe physical limitations in his upper extremities, causing him acute pains and cramps, as a consequence of the numerous surgical procedures that he has undergone after an automobile accident in 1998.

Galván's relatives indicated that the year of solitary confinement in a humid cell in the penitentiary, as well as the hardness of the straw mattress where he sleeps in a bunk bed of Detail 10 of the referred jail, increase the pain in his bones and make them insufferable due to lack of medicines and specialized medical attention.

The conscience prisoner's relatives added that he remains under a severe regimen, allowing visits only every three months, only one 30 pound bag is permitted, which includes personal hygiene articles, books and food and sometimes they don' let him make the 10 minutes once a week, telephone call.

His relatives affirmed that these additional measures to his physical discomfort, as well as other of a psychological nature that he endures day in and day out in Agüica's Penitentiary, keep this conscience prisoner in a tense state, that nevertheless does not change his desire to keep faithful to his principles as a peaceful opponent, denouncing the arbitrary actions taken against him and his prison's inmates.

Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, 39 years old, a Mechanical Engineer, Master in Sciences, was working as an independent journalist and was the Vice-Director of the National Center for Labor and Union Training. His residence is located at 52nd Street number 9914 between 99th and 103rd, in the Municipality of Güines, Havana Province.