‘They beat him and killed him’: The death of a political prisoner in a Cuban jail

On Sunday afternoon, Dania María Esplugas sat inside the hearse next to her son’s body, refusing to leave his side until she could personally place him in the family pantheon. The night before, just past midnight, several Cuban agents arrived at her home in Old Havana to inform her of the death of her son, 29-year-old Manuel de Jesús Guillén Esplugas, who had been imprisoned in the Combinado del Este prison since participating in the anti-government protests of July 11, 2021. Dania rejects the government’s official explanation of her son’s death: he did not die, as the government says, she claims, her son was killed.

“They didn’t know how to get to my home to tell me,” says Dania, 63. “It was midnight, and a patrol car kept circling my house. When they finally arrived and told me, you can imagine how I felt.” The last time she saw her son alive was during a prison visit on Saturday, November 23. There was no indication then that the next time she saw him, he would be dead. According to the official autopsy, Manuel de Jesús died by asphyxiation from hanging on December 30, around 9 p.m.

Dania has kept photos of the clothes her son was wearing when his body was brought to the funeral home on Zanja and Belascoaín streets in Havana. His sweater bore muddy footprints, and his pants remained soaked in urine — a testament, she claims, to the torture inflicted on him by prison staff.

In a harrowing video that quickly spread on social media, Dania is seen grieving over Manuel de Jesús’s lifeless body, wailing that her son “was killed.” “They killed him, but this isn’t going to stay like this. He was so sweet, so beautiful,” the mother cries. “They beat him and killed him. They killed one of my sons, but I hold him alive here in my heart.”

Dania closely examined her son’s body, noting marks on his neck, back, and arms that convinced her he did not die by suicide. Instead, she believes that after a brutal beating left him unconscious, prison authorities staged his hanging to suggest a suicide.

She noted marks on his neck consistent with a zambrán, a military campaign belt commonly worn by Cuban officers. “They say he hanged himself to absolve himself [of his guilt], but my son would never do that,” she insists. “He had bruises on his back and arms, like he had been struck with a tonfa [baton].” She also observed severe blows above his right lung.

The third political prisoner from demonstrations to die in prison

The death of Manuel de Jesús marks the third case of a protester from the July 11, 2021, demonstrations to die while imprisoned. These protests resulted in the detention of over 1,500 Cubans, with 554 still incarcerated today, some serving sentences as harsh as 20 years, according to data from Justicia 11J.

Political prisoner Alejandro Garlobo, who was released on bail late last year, met Manuel de Jesús — an activist affiliated with Cuba Decide and a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) — during their early days at Combinado del Este prison. This notorious facility has been identified as a site of severe repression, according to research from the Cuban Prison Documentation Center.

“Many of us knew him as Noli. He was a great kid, serious, with good ideals,” says Garlobo. “He was a very brave guy, he refused to work [in prison], because he said that if you worked you were serving the dictatorship. He was serious, he didn’t deserve this.”

Manuel de Jesús was 27 when he was arrested at his home on July 17, 2021, after sharing videos of the July 11 protests on social media. Charged with public disorder and vandalism, he was sentenced to six years in prison after being held for a year and a half without trial. His mother filed two habeas corpus petitions with the Provincial Court of Havana, both of which were denied.

During his imprisonment, Manuel de Jesús reported his conditions to the Cuban Prison Documentation Center: not only did he have to deal with an infestation of bedbugs and rats in his cell, he was also denied medical care and treatment to cure the scabies he contracted in prison. He also suffered from poor nutrition and complained about being held with common prisoners convicted of violent crimes.

Manuel de Jesús’s death made headlines and a wave of tension swept through the prison. Garlobo says his friends in prison noted that riot squads had been stationed outside Combinado del Este “in case something happened.” They also told him that last Friday the Manuel de Jesús was the victim of a beating in prison. “I don’t doubt that they did the same thing to him that they did to another prisoner I knew,” says Garrobo. “They said he had hanged himself, but they were the ones who simply hung him.”

The exact motive for the alleged beating remains unclear. A cousin of the victim suggested on Facebook that it stemmed from his refusal to work for State Security. Other sources reported that he had been tortured in a punishment cell after attempting to escape his ongoing harassment. This was not the first instance of abuse; in early 2023, his mother revealed to the independent press that a severe beating had caused glandular swelling near his ears, requiring surgery at the prison hospital.

“Independent investigation is impossible”

Cuban prisons operate under a veil of secrecy, making accountability elusive. Both international and civil society organizations have repeatedly condemned the lack of access to these facilities, where crimes often go unpunished. A study by the legal advisory group Cubalex documented 56 deaths in custody in Cuba between January 2022 and January 2024, nearly all involving male prisoners (53). The main reported causes were suicide and violence.

Cubalex highlights the Minnesota Protocol, an international framework from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights designed to guide investigations into potentially state-related deaths. However, in Cuban prisons, “the lack of adequate investigations and accountability of the authorities involved in violent incidents suggests an environment of impunity,” the organization indicates.

In this context, determining whether Manuel de Jesús’s death was a murder or suicide is virtually impossible. Cuban lawyer Raudiel Peña Barrios, a member of Cubalex, explained to EL PAÍS that “it is impossible to carry out an independent investigation outside of the state’s control, therefore legally proving he was murdered is incredibly difficult.”

“Unfortunately, it will be forgotten, because there are no independent investigative mechanisms, there are no civil society organizations to which the mother can turn,” says the lawyer. “The main recourse they have now is to file a complaint against the officials and the management of the penitentiary establishment where Manuel de Jesús was held and then wait for an investigation process to be carried out by official institutions, that is, the Military Prosecutor’s Office, the investigative apparatus of the Ministry of the Interior. In legal terms, resources are very limited due to the situation in Cuba, and it is very possible that the official version will continue to be that he hung himself, because that frees the officials of the prison where that person was held from responsibility.”

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