Health risks increase for political prisoner Angélica Garrido

By Ramón Zamora Rodríguez.

National Spokesperson of the Republican Party of Cuba .

Archive photo: Angélica Garrido Rodríguez.

Angélica Garrido Rodríguez, a political prisoner and prominent activist of the Republican Party of Cuba, who is in the El Guatao women's prison in Havana, suffers facial paralysis as a result of the aftereffects of a stroke she suffered months ago. This stroke placed Angélica's health and life at significant risk. The constant repressive actions of her jailers and state security against the courageous prisoner created and continue to create a dangerous emotional state for her life, to the point that she now shows signs and symptoms of another stroke.

The torture she suffered, which triggered the first neurological episodes, began with 63 days in solitary confinement, just like her sister, the political prisoner and National Executive Director of the Republican Party of Cuba, Maria Cristina Garrido Rodríguez, for refusing to wear the degrading prison uniform. Then came the difficult and agonizing news of the death of her father and mother, and the endless psychological techniques employed by the Castro terrorist dictatorship to try to break the spirit of the brave sisters. Added to this was a diet deficient in every imaginable way, designed to break the body and its health, though not the will, which led her to suffer her first stroke or cerebrovascular accident.

The months of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment against the Garrido sisters continue unabated. A shocking letter demanding freedom for all political prisoners, addressed to the murderous dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel and signed in the blood of 10 prisoners, including Angélica and Maria Cristina, has prompted a particularly intense attack by the prison's military forces against the Garrido sisters, causing psychological deterioration in Angélica, who maintains significant risk factors for a recurrence of a stroke or cerebrovascular accident.

Last Monday, March 13th, it was time for Angélica's regular visit. Her husband, Luis Rodriguez Pérez, reported that she appeared disoriented, with a severe headache, changes in color and temperature in her upper and lower extremities, a feeling of numbness, tingling or cramping in her hands, drooping eyelids, and marked fatigue. Generally speaking, the common symptoms of a stroke include weakness in the face, arms, and legs, difficulty speaking, loss of sensation or tingling, sudden loss of vision in one eye, and intense headache. Angélica presents significant risk factors for another stroke: she is of the sex most affected by stroke, she is 44 years old, has high blood pressure, smokes, leads a sedentary lifestyle characteristic of prison where she has little opportunity to exercise, and, most fundamentally, suffers from the stress of pressure, the cause of so many illnesses and deaths in Cuba.

Political prisoner Angélica Garrido could suffer not only total paralysis, but also sudden or gradual vision loss, a catastrophic and potentially fatal stroke, a heart attack, and tragically, death. Angélica is serving a three-year prison sentence. For years, the regime has failed repeatedly in the eyes of national and international opinion due to its rigidity and obstinacy, bearing the burden of the blood and lives it takes from its own people, all to avoid showing what it considers a sign of weakness, but which is precisely its sword of Damocles. The reality is that if political prisoner Angélica Garrido Rodríguez suffers any of these tragic consequences due to the insensitivity of the neo-Castro regime, they will have to answer to the world for their inflexibility.

Currently, the Cuban people barely have medicines to treat their ailments; the shortage is even worse within the Castro regime's prisons. More than a medical crisis in the prisons, there is a lack of medical attention for the prisoners. So much so, that Angélica barely receives any medication or follow-up from a neurologist, and to date, she has only had a blood count with red blood cells and a urinalysis performed reluctantly, nothing to do with imaging and even less with neurorehabilitation.

We demand the immediate and unconditional release of political prisoner Angélica Garrido for her necessary treatment, neurological follow-up, and neurological rehabilitation. We urge all governmental and non-governmental organizations, politicians, independent civil society, and alternative media outlets to speak out for Angélica's health and life. To leave her to her fate and calmly look the other way is also a crime.