22 days ago, forces from the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) broke into the home of activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was on a hunger and thirst strike, and confined him to the General Calixto García University Hospital, where he is still being held.
On that day hospital management published an information note concluding: "At this time the patient's condition is stable. The corresponding medical actions are being continued by the group of specialists. He is being kept under observation for the reasons cited, which led to his arrival at the institution."
With this note the Calixto García Hospital took responsibility for the patient and, at the same time, its complicity in his abduction. The facility’s authorities issued a clinical alibi allowing the MININT to operate, and its deputy director of surgery, Dr. Ifrán Martínez Gálvez, was complicit in the disinformation campaign surrounding the case.
The latest images released of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara show how much his health has deteriorated in these past 20 days. Part of the responsibility for his decline rests with the authorities at the Calixto García Hospital and the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), which have placed their facilities and specialized personnel at the disposal of the forces of political repression.
Cuban activists, inside and outside the country, would do well to publicly denounce the MINSAP, the Calixto García Hospital and Dr. Martínez Gálvez, health authorities all collaborating with the political police in the repression and torture of those who think differently from them.