MANUEL DE JESÚS GUILLÉN ESPLUGAS
Political imprisonment constitutes one of the most brutal forms of human rights violation and abuse. Confining activists and critics behind bars for exercising fundamental rights is part of the human toll of oppression in Cuba and authoritarianism around the world.
In Democratic Spaces, advocating for the release of all political prisoners in Cuba is a priority from a humanitarian and human rights perspective.
We call the attention to the case of Manuel de Jesús Guillén Esplugas as we believe it constitutes a clear clase of arbitrariness and abuse.
Details of this case have been reported by his mother. Dania María Esplugas Falcó to Martí Noticias.
I am presenting him because he has been unjustly imprisoned for a year and six months, and he has not been charged with any crime, and without trial. He was arrested, allegedly, because he was uploading to the networks everything that the government was doing during the protests. Once arrested, they even broke his telephone, and that is how the political police later handed him over to me," the woman explained.
Initially, Guillén Esplugas was taken to the 4th Unit of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), located in Zanja and Chacón, Centro Habana municipality. From there he was transferred to the political police barracks, and then to the Combinado del Este prison, where he is currently being held.
The young man was isolated for a month in the State Security headquarters, known as Villa Marista, where he was physically abused because they wanted him to recant, said Esplugas Falcó.
He told them that no one would change his ideas, and exclaimed "Patria y Vida! This government does not like to be called Patria y Vida. There he was held incommunicado, I knew nothing about my son at any time. He was beaten there and when he was transferred to the Combinado on September 1, 2021, he was still swollen. Today he is being held in building three, on the fourth floor south, company 3402", indicated the mother of the political prisoner.
She added that she was not able to see him until October, because he still bore the marks of the beating he had received.
"After they took him out of a place called El Depósito, the day of the first visit, my son confirmed to me everything that happened in Villa Marista, he told me: 'Mommy, I came to the Combinado and I was still with visible signs of the physical abuse, because of the hand of blows they gave me'".
According to Esplugas Falcó, as a result of that beating, some glands in the lower part of his ears were infected, and he was operated on at the prison hospital "after much insistence from me", she denounced.
See full report in Spanish: Tomás Cardoso, “11J protester has been imprisoned for a year and a half with no prosecutor's request or trial date,” (Feb 7. 2023), Martí Noticias.
His arbitrary arrest and inhume treatment violate the following articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 8
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11
Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.