Manuel de Jesús Guillén Esplugas, 30, died this Saturday in the Combinado del Este prison, in Havana, where he was serving a six-year sentence for participating in the protests of July 11, 2021.
The young man, a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and a promoter of Cuba Decide, was allegedly brutally beaten by prison guards, according to reports. denounced His mother. The beating occurred in a punishment cell after a failed escape attempt, according to the Justice 11J report.
According to statements from his cousin Yan Franco via Facebook, The official version maintains that Guillén Esplugas “hanged himself.” However, Franco denounced that the young man had refused to cooperate with State Security, which allegedly triggered the fatal altercation.
His family members claim that the marks on his neck do not correspond to a sheet, as the official version states, but to a belt used by the guards, and they demand justice.
In our recent report on deaths in custody in Cuba, we identified an alarming pattern: the excessive use of force and the violence exerted by state agents, which demonstrates systematic practices of abuse and a serious lack of effective control within the prison and police system.
It is the obligation of the authorities to carry out an independent and thorough investigation to clarify the circumstances of the death of Manuel de Jesús Guillén Esplugas.