Based on 28 semi-structured interviews with family members of people imprisoned for political reasons in Cuba—25 of them women—this report documents the prison situation on the island. The findings were compared with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules) and the typologies of repression documented by Cubalex.
The documentation reveals that political imprisonment operates as an extended punishment: the sanction does not end in the cell, but rather extends to the home through induced impoverishment, state harassment, and the transfer of state responsibilities to the family. In most cases, the family unit provides all of the prisoner's food, medicine, hygiene items, bedding, and even drinking water; therefore, those who lack this support network are left, in the words of one interviewee, "destitute.".
The figures documented in the investigation illustrate the severity of this burden: each delivery of a sack or crate of food and medicine costs between 20,000 and 60,000 Cuban pesos per delivery, in contrast to a minimum wage of 3,210 CUP per month. Likewise, transportation for visits ranges from 400 to 15,000 pesos depending on the distance, while medicines are purchased entirely on the informal market. Under these conditions, 60% of those interviewed identified economic need as the most urgent; several households reported living on only one meal a day.
Three operational takeaways for donors and aid organizations:
- The most effective assistance today is direct cash transfer. This is the majority and well-reasoned preference of families: food packages are lost during prolonged power outages, some of their contents cannot be delivered to the prison, and thefts are reported along the delivery chain. Cash allows them to buy exactly what the incarcerated person needs, where it is cheaper.
- Continuity matters as much as the amount. Existing aid programs were reduced or discontinued in the last 6 to 12 months; families who relied on a single channel were left unable to bring food to their imprisoned relatives for months. This dependence on a single delivery channel is a single point of failure.
- Information is a humanitarian need. Most families are unaware of prison benefits and international reporting mechanisms, and prison administrations deliberately conceal or falsify information about regime progression. Basic legal guidance and training to recognize and report violations are part of the humanitarian response, not an add-on.
The identified needs are organized into three levels: humanitarian emergency (food, medicine, transportation, communication), economic stabilization (sustained transfers, support for women caregivers and affected children), and protection and advocacy (legal advice, documentation, human rights education, and international accompaniment). Humanitarian aid does not replace state responsibility, but in the current context, it is the essential mechanism to prevent irreversible harm to families subjected to deliberate collective punishment.