At 37 years old, Normando Hernández González is too young to die.
Especially from high blood pressure.
Especially in a Cuban prison.
And especially since he is in prison solely because of his work as an independent journalist.
Hernández — whose work a prosecutor in 2003 labeled as "socially very dangerous" — is serving a 25-year sentence at the Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey. Before his arrest during the "black spring" crackdown in March-April 2003, Hernández was editor of the School of Independent Journalists of Camagüey.
Since then, Hernández has suffered from a variety of health ailments — conditions made worse by the poor, if any, health care offered to political prisoners.
Recently, Hernández's health has turned for the worse, according to a story posted at CubaNet.
Hernández's wife, Yaraí Reyes Marín, told journalist Tania Maceda Guerra that prison officials are "killing him, little by little."
According to Maceda's story, Reyes Marín reported that her husband's blood pressure has been rising rapidly, and that medications provided by prison doctors have been ineffective. Also, Hernández frequently suffers from fatigue and has fainting spells, which symptoms of gastrointestinal malabsorption syndrome.
At 37 years old, sitting in a Cuban prison, Normando Hernández González is too young to die from that.
A good bet is that one group of "journalists" meeting in Havana this week, the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC), won't be speaking up for Hernández and the other more than two dozen journalists imprisoned in Castro's gulag.
Child of the Revolution has more.
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