14ymedio, Havana, January 10, 2024 — Migdalia Gutiérrez Padrón, mother of political prisoner Brusnelvis Cabrera Gutiérrez, has planted herself outside prison 1580 in the municipality of San Miguel del Padrón in Havana. The woman demands medical attention for her son — sentenced to 10 years in prison for participating in the protests of 11 July 2021 — who has felt sick for weeks.
Gutiérrez Padrón refuses to move from the place until her son is transferred to a hospital center, since the young man feels depressed and has lost a lot of weight, according to what she told the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights. “Even if I’m alone, I’m not leaving until they take him to a hospital,” the woman said.
Brusnelvis Cabrera Gutiérrez, 24 years old, was transferred to the maximum security prison last August. “That prison is also called ’the dryer’ because everyone there is very skinny and hungry. In all prisons in Cuba there is 99.9% hunger, but in that one you suffer 100%,” the mother told this newspaper.
The change of prison occurred several days after the young man refused to eat or wear the prison uniform in the Combinado prison of east Havana. The mother saw the move with suspicion: “I don’t expect anything good from the dictatorship. The dictatorship doesn’t give anything good and we don’t want it,” she told 14ymedio at the time. “I see that it