Each month, a Havana-based group called the Commission for Attention for Political Prisoners and Families (CAPPF), publishes news on various political prisoners. This month, the updates are on three prisoners I've previously profiled as Political Prisoners of the Week. They are:
* Dr. Marcelo Cano Rodríguez, who is serving an 18-year sentence, handed down during the "black spring," of March-April 2003. His aunt, Catalina Cano Vergara, told CAPPF, that Cano, 42, is receiving treatment for osteoporosis. He is a prisoner at the Ariza prison in Cienfuegos.* Antonio Ramón Díaz Sánchez, who is serving a 20-year sentence, also handed down during the "black spring." His wife, Gisela Sánchez Verdecí, reported that Díaz's health has worsened, but officials at the Canaleta prison, in Ciego de Ávila, do not provide him with adequate medical care. He is receiving family visits ever month, and conjugal visits every three months. (For more on Díaz, read his nephew's blog.)
* Lázaro Alejandro García Farah, who is serving a 25-year sentence., handed down in 1994, after he was convicted of piracy. His mother, Gladis Farah Estrada, reported that Farah, now 40, suffers from a variety of medical ailments — vision loss, pneumonia, high cholesterol, and more — and he was recently transfered to another prison.
UPDATED, Oct. 15, 2007
CAPPF also reported that political prisoner Maria de los Ángeles Borrego Mir — last week's Political Prisoner of the Week — receives regular beatings and is held in conditions of poor hygiene. Also, her family is routinely harassed and threatened. Borrego, 47, in December 2005 was convicted of being a "pre-criminal social danger," and sentenced to 4 years in prison.
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