For arriving late from her leave, the authorities threatened to move her to a harsher regime.
14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2024 — Political prisoner Yilian Oramas García ended her hunger strike at the Cuba Panama prison for HIV-positive prisoners on Tuesday. The woman from Villa Clara had been punished with a change of regime from less to more rigorous after arriving late from leave on August 13. Oramas, who lives more than 250 kilometres from the prison in Mayabeque, initiated the protest to ask for the measure to be revoked. The authorities finally agreed this week after changing the sanction to two home-visit suspensions.
In addition to having HIV, Oramas, 43, is also diabetic and after the strike she had to be treated by prison health staff. “She was very weak because she is diabetic, they gave her IVs in the little hospital they have in the prison,” her mother, María Josefa Oramas, told Martí Noticias.
According to the woman, Oramas “ended the strike, because the head of Mayabeque Prisons and Jails (Yunior Lázaro Santana), together with State Security, cancelled her revocation, which was for two years and, instead, they took away two of her home visits.”
The mother breathes a sigh of relief since a change to a more severe regime would mean that her daughter must serve the entire sentence.
Although she considers the measure unjust, her mother breathes a sigh of relief, since a change to a more severe regime would mean that her daughter must serve the entire sentence without the right to an early release. “You don’t win against the dictatorship, but the revocation meant she had to serve the three years,” she said.
Oramas was sentenced to six years in prison for participating in the August 15, 2021 protests in front of the funeral home