(Center for a Free Cuba – Press Release) The life of Alexander Díaz Rodríguez is in jeopardy, and a call is rising from around the world for his release to save him, as he suffers in the Penitentiary Ward of Abel Santamaría Hospital in Pinar del Río Province, Cuba, while the Cuban dictatorship remains indifferent and apathetic to this situation.
In a press release, the Center for a Free Cuba denounced that political prisoner Alexander Díaz Rodríguez is in a dramatic condition, vomiting blood due to thyroid cancer, which was diagnosed in 2022, yet he has not received appropriate medical attention.
The president and board of directors of the Center for a Free Cuba sent a communication to various world figures to intercede for Díaz Rodríguez’s life.
Intercede with Díaz Canel
The letter from the Center for a Free Cuba is addressed to Pope Francis; Archbishop Thomas Wenski; U.S. Congress members Chris Smith and James P. McGovern; OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro; Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament; and representatives from international organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Pax Christi, as well as UN Human Rights Council rapporteurs.
The communication issues a call for these personalities and international organizations to intercede with the Cuban authorities to ensure that this political prisoner is released and receives appropriate medical care.
“With the utmost respect, we address you to request that your respective institutions intercede with the government of General Raúl Castro and President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez to save the life of a seriously ill political prisoner.”
Brutal Beating
The mother of Díaz Rodríguez, Moraima Rodríguez Batista, went to the hospital to learn about her son’s health situation, and more information is expected to come.
Alexander Díaz Rodríguez was a victim of a brutal beating and was arrested on July 11, 2021, while participating in protests in San Antonio de los Baños, in the province of Artemisa, southwest of Havana. He was a member of the November 30 Frank País Democratic Party, an illegal political party founded in the 1990s that promotes human rights and non-violent civic action.
Alexander Díaz Rodríguez was born on August 6, 1980, and is currently 44 years old. He was sentenced to five years in prison and during this time, he has faced mistreatment that reaches the level of torture for denouncing human rights conditions in the prisons where he has been held.
Rigged Political Trial
After a rigged political trial, Alexander Díaz Rodríguez was transferred to Guanajay prison, where he carried out three hunger strikes and refused to participate in pro-government political activities or wear the clothes of common prisoners.
During phone calls to his mother, Moraima Rodríguez, from that prison, Díaz Rodríguez reported the abuses he and other prisoners suffered. He was pushed down five steps of a prison staircase and, once on the ground, was kicked and beaten in 2022. The last beating he received in Guanajay prison was for refusing to participate in a pro-regime event commemorating the assault on the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953.
Cancer Diagnosis
He was taken to the infirmary of the Combinado del Este prison, where he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer on October 14, 2022. Following this, he was sent to Kilo 5 ½ prison in Pinar del Río without receiving medical attention.
He is currently incarcerated at the Augusto César Sandino Correctional Center in Pinar del Río, Cuba, four hours by car from his home in Havana.
Alexander was in the prison dining hall when he began to vomit blood. He continued to cough after rinsing his mouth and kept coughing blood. According to his mother, this was not due to another beating, but she has been unable to confirm what happened to her son. She obtained this information from relatives of other inmates who learned about the incident from their incarcerated family members.
On April 7, 2025, he was temporarily taken to the Abel Santamaría Hospital, situated at Kilometer 89, where he is currently housed in the inmates’ ward.
The Center for a Free Cuba calls on international human rights organizations and free governments around the world not to forget the thousands of political prisoners whose lives are at risk in Cuban prisons and to hold the Havana regime accountable for these cases.