{"id":29632,"date":"2022-06-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/fears-for-health-of-imprisoned-yoruba-religious-leader-5724\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:07:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:07:29","slug":"fears-for-health-of-imprisoned-yoruba-religious-leader-5724","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/fears-for-health-of-imprisoned-yoruba-religious-leader-5724\/","title":{"rendered":"Fears for health of imprisoned Yoruba religious leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The family of a leader of the Association of Free Yorubas, an independent religious group in Cuba, has expressed concern for the well-being of Loreto Hern\u00e1ndez Garc\u00eda who was forced to return to prison on 7 June, after State Security ordered that he be expelled from the hospital where he had been receiving medical treatment since 29 May.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Hern\u00e1ndez Garc\u00eda has diabetes and hypertension, and has been subjected to severe beatings while in prison. He was detained on 16 July 2021 as part of a government crackdown on protestors who participated in spontaneous and peaceful demonstrations across the island<\/a> on 11 July 2021. He is serving a seven-year sentence in Guamajal Prison on charges of disrespect and public disorder, which CSW believes to be false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His wife and two other members of the Association of Free Yorubas, an Afro-Cuban religious group, are also in prison in connection with their participation in the 11 July protests. Donaida Perez Pasairo, Mr Hern\u00e1ndez Garc\u00eda\u2019s wife, is serving an eight-year sentence. The group has a long history of being targeted by the government, in part because of their decision to remain independent of Afro-Cuban religious groups with links to the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in prison, Mr. Hern\u00e1ndez Garc\u00eda has been subjected to humiliating treatment by prison officials because of his religion. On 10 November, he was beaten and thrown down a flight of stairs by a guard who identified himself as \u201cCarlitos\u201d and who also ridiculed his religious beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Hern\u00e1ndez Garc\u00eda\u2019s brother, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, also known as \u201cAntunez\u201d, a former political prisoner now in exile, told CSW: \u201cI believe, and I say this taking full responsibility for my words, that the Cuban government may be sending my brother, the religious leader Loreto Hern\u00e1ndez Garc\u00eda, to prison so that he dies there instead of in the hospital. [He] is over 50 years old, he has diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and chronic asthma and in the first days of his detention he suffered a preinfarction angina. [Cuban] officials are very familiar with his health condition\u2026 while in prison, the officers did all they could to keep Loreto incommunicado, isolated and separated from other political prisoners and prohibited from any contact with his family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Joint Head of Advocacy and Team Leader for the Americas Anna Lee Stangl said: \u201cWe are deeply concerned for Loreto Hern\u00e1ndez Garc\u00eda\u2019s health and call on the Cuban government to release him immediately, along with other members of the Association of Free Yorubas. They have been targeted because of their involvement in an unregistered religious group in addition to their participation in the 11 July protests. Preventing Mr Hern\u00e1ndez Garc\u00eda from having any communication with his family, given the state of his health, is inhumane, and the Cuban government will bear full responsibility should anything untoward happen to him.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The family of a leader of the Association of Free Yorubas, an independent religious group in Cuba, has expressed concern for the well-being of Loreto Hernandez Garcia<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43769,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[140,137],"class_list":["post-29632","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-cuba","regions-latin-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40216,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29632\/revisions\/40216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29632"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}