Homosexual Prisoners Suffer Abuse and Discrimination

Homosexual Prisoners Suffer Abuse and Discrimination / Frank E. Carranza
Lopez in the blog of Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada
Posted on September 22, 2013
By Frank E. Carranza Lopez, Agencia Decoro

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net) — The alarming news came to us from Fausto
de la Caridad Urbay, President of the LGBT Liberal Youth of Cuba Front.

He is denied visits to gay prisoners at the HIV/AIDS special prison,
located a mile from the Maraguaco highway to San Jose de las Lajas in
the province Mayabeque. This prison has 5 internal sections, four for
men and one for women.

On 2 August 2013, he went to Section #2, medium security (the most
populous of the prison) to visit for four hours with family and friends
of the inmates. For years inmates have enjoyed this privilege without
hindrance. Most inmates are gay and along with visits from their family
receive visits from their respective partners.

Imagine the astonishment of the visitors when, after waiting some hours
for official entry, they were told that by superior orders only family
members could visit and no one else. The discontent caused quite a
commotion, followed by crude threats from the officials of internal
order (FOI), to which the families responded by asking to see the
director of the penitentiary, Jorge Luis Castillo. He did not show his
face and instead sent his second in command, who called himself Álvaro,
and who, upset and disrespectful to the gay community, told them, and I
quote, "Castillo is Castillo and I'm me and I don't care to allow gay
partners to visit here and if you don't like it you can complain as much
as or wherever you want and it won't do you any good, I'm in charge here."

After several minutes of protest, he decided to pass on the food the
visitors had brought, warning that this would be the last time and not
to take the trouble of returning.

Many of those prisoners are of the type called charity cases (with no
family), and only receive visits from their homosexual partners.

Currently the discontent within the facility is growing, daily
irritation increases, after the surprise inspection of high officials
from the Cuban Interior Ministry (MININT) triggered by a complaint
issued on June 27 by CUBANET, any return of the previous visitors makes
things worse.

The repression increased, the food returned to its original inedible and
indescribable state, vitamin K disappeared again along with injectable
Dipirona, and as if that weren't enough it seems the deputy director of
the prison, Señor Álvaro, carried out a coup d'etat against his superior
and won, playing the part of the Grim Reaper with the threads of the
lives of the inmates who require specialized care given their state as
patients with HIV/AIDS.

10 August 2013

Source: "Homosexual Prisoners Suffer Abuse and Discrimination / Frank E.
Carranza Lopez in the blog of Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada |
Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/homosexual-prisoners-suffer-abuse-and-discrimination-frank-e-carranza-lopez-in-blog-of-wendy-iriepa-and-ignacio-estrada/