Cuban authorities are escalating surveillance and harassment of families of political prisoners while denying adequate medical care to jailed dissidents, Amnesty International said Monday.
The human rights organization reported that relatives of prisoners of conscience face police cordons around their homes, movement restrictions, and threats, and that these actions are occurring in the absence of court orders or legal justification.
Amnesty International’s Caribbean researcher Johanna Cilano said of the situation:
Constant surveillance of homes, short-term arbitrary detention and unjustified restrictions on leaving the home are part of a systematic pattern of authoritarian practices that the Cuban state is using to punish and deter any form of dissent.
The group expressed particular alarm over the deteriorating health of several jailed activists. Prisoners Loreto Hernández García and Roberto Pérez Fonseca suffer from serious chronic illnesses that have worsened in custody, yet authorities continue delaying their release on medical grounds despite prison doctors confirming the severity of their conditions, the organization said.
Félix Navarro Rodríguez remains in prolonged isolation with no information about his health, though he recently underwent medical tests after showing possible tuberculosis symptoms, according to the report.
Amnesty International called for the immediate release of all prisoners of conscience and an end to what it called authoritarian practices against dissidents and their families.
