Havana – On Tuesday, several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) focused on monitoring prisons in Cuba called for an investigation into the death of a man who had been imprisoned since 2021 for his participation in significant protests against shortages and blackouts.
Authorities reported that 29-year-old Manuel de Jesús Guillén Esplugas died by suicide while incarcerated. However, his family members assert that he died from injuries sustained during an escape attempt at the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, where he was serving a six-year sentence.
Guillén was part of an opposition group named the Patriotic Union of Cuba and died on Saturday, with his remains returned to his family shortly thereafter.
“Our information, gathered from various sources, suggests that Manuel was attempting to escape and was caught during the process,” stated Camila Rodríguez, a representative from Justicia 11J, an NGO that monitors the conditions of detainees in Cuba. “Unless we are granted access to the prison to conduct independent interviews and investigations, we may never know the full truth of what transpired,” she added.
Cuban officials have not yet provided a response to requests for comment regarding the situation.
On July 11, 2021, a large number of Cubans took to the streets to voice their displeasure over power outages and shortages amid a deepening economic crisis. The government’s subsequent crackdown on demonstrators, which involved arrests and detentions, drew international condemnation, while government officials blamed U.S. sanctions and media narratives for the protests’ escalation.
In January 2022, the Cuban Attorney General’s Office stated that around 790 individuals were under investigation and prosecution over the protests, facing charges that varied from disobedience and sabotage to vandalism and assaults. Guillén was among those taken into custody during this period.
According to Justicia 11J, Guillén’s death marks the third confirmed fatality of an inmate sentenced for their role in the July 2021 protests, with more than 550 people still imprisoned in connection to the demonstrations.
During a live Facebook broadcast on Tuesday, Guillén’s cousin, Yan Franco Esplugas, strongly endorsed the theory that Guillén was murdered in prison. “They beat him to death,” he expressed emotionally. “They killed him in prison; stop lying and deceiving everyone by claiming he hanged himself.”
A report from Justicia 11J published in April indicated that Guillén had previously communicated to the Mexico-based Cuban Prison Documentation Center about the appalling conditions he faced in prison. He detailed being housed with violent offenders, suffering from infestations of bed bugs, and enduring critical food shortages.