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Cubalex reports more than a week without access to sunlight at Guanajay prison

The report comes from 11J political prisoner Denis Hernández Ramírez and is published by Cubalex, which lists five other prisons with similar restrictions during 2026 and links them to the ban on degrading treatment, according to Infobae.

Inmates at the maximum security prison of Guanajay, in Artemisa, were unable for more than a week to go out to the areas set aside for sunlight, according to a report by Denis Hernández Ramírez, a political prisoner from the protests of July 11, 2021, published by the organization Cubalex. The restriction was reportedly ordered by an officer identified as Lieutenant Colonel Edgar and also barred access to the yard.

Cubalex places similar limits during 2026 at five other prisons: El Pre, in Santa Clara; the 1580 prison, the El 18 labor camp and the Western Women's Prison, in Havana; and the Ho Chi Minh camp, in Bainoa, Mayabeque. Among those affected it names the political prisoners Marcos de la Luz Caballero Granados, Alexander Fábregas and Jorge Martín Perdomo, as well as ordinary inmates.

The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Mandela Rules, state in rule 23.1 that inmates who do not work outdoors must have, weather permitting, at least one hour of physical exercise a day outside their cells. Rule 42 requires lighting, ventilation and access to open air, and rule 43 prohibits sanctions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as collective punishment.

The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture said in a 2023 report that one hour of outdoor exercise a day is a basic right that should reach every inmate and should not be treated as a privilege that staff can withdraw. Cubalex warned that deliberately withdrawing yard access may breach article 16 of the Convention against Torture when used as retaliation or collective punishment, and called for the release of those jailed for exercising the freedoms of expression, assembly and peaceful protest.

Sources: Infobae · Serie Yamacoa: Presos políticos en Cuba (Prisoners Defenders)

Data updated: 2026-11-04T04:15:00.000Z

Cubalex reports more than a week without access to sunlight at Guanajay prison | Yamacoa Observatory