Canadian held in 'horrific' Cuban prison being denied consular visits

YvisAbadin says it was onJuly12 the day after unprecedented anti-government demonstrations exploded across Cuba that her 19-year-old son Michael Carey Abadin was taken.

There were still scattered acts of protest popping uparound their neighbourhood in Old Havana, where police and pro-government vigilantes called Rapid Response Brigades had a heavy presence.

"Michael went down to the street and sat on the sidewalk talking with a friend," Yvis Abadin told CBC News. "Some people from another building about half a block away threw some rocks and broke the windshield of a police car.

"An hour later, some big men in civilian clothes with bats came by and detained Michael.

"There are many witnesses who saw that my son was just sitting there. They're holding my son in prison unjustly."

Michael Carey Abadin, who holds Canadian citizenship and was planning to begin university in Canada, was one of approximately 3,000 people arrested during or after the protests against Cuba'sone-party rule.

'Horrific'conditions

The more than 500 Cubansimprisoned in connection with the protests are experiencing"horrific" conditions, saidJuan Pappier of Human Rights Watch, whose organization has spoken with 130 people arrested on July 11 and 12.

"The cells are overcrowded," he told CBC. "They have very little food. They don't have access to water for many hours. The conditions are so bad that many of them told us that they lost track of time. They didn't know what day it was or what time of day."

AHumanRights Watch report says detainees have been "forced to squat naked, apparently deliberately deprived of sleep, brutally beaten, and held in cells without natural light."

"During these detentions, many of the prisoners are subjected to repeated interrogations where they are forced to confess to crimes they haven't committed, or to identify people who are presumably responsible for organizing the demonstrations," Pappier told CBC.

The report also says prisoners arewoken upin the night and ordered to shout political slogans such as "Viva Fidel!"Those who don't are sent to tiny punishment cells.

Branded a 'worm'

Yvis Abadinsaid that on the first day of her son'sjourneythrough the Cuban prison system, he was taken to a police barracks called "punto 30"where police officers accused him of being a "gusano" (worm)or counter-revolutionary. He was then takento a "centre of operations" on Picota Street, she said, andafter three weeks was transferredto the Jovenes de Occidente prison in the Havana suburb of El Guatao, where he remains.

That was where he met fellow detainee Rolando Remedios, who was arrested on 11 July. An Agence France-Presse news photograph of Remedios being choked and forced into a police car by a government vigilante was published around the world and became an iconic image of the day.

Remedios, a 25-year-old medical sciences student, said he had been trying to reach the protest on Havana's waterfront boulevard when he was intercepted by police.

"The first day was terrible," he told CBC. "We were taken to that prison, and the way they welcomed us was brutal. I was lucky because they took me to a punishment cell, they booked me, they listed me as a counter-revolutionary.So you get a different treatment normally, like torture.

"But for some reason I was taken back, I was quickly taken to a normal cell. Those who remained in the yard suffered terrible beatings."

After a stay in Jovenes de Cotorro prison, Remediossaid he was moved to Jovenes de Occidente, where Canadian Michael Carey Abadin was working as a "pasillero" an inmate whose job it is to clean hallways and cells, distribute waterand carry out other chores. That brought Carey Abadin into contact with other political detainees held in isolation.

Remediossaid he "fondly" recalls the young prisoner whose nickname was 'Canada'.

"He's a caring person,"Remedios told CBC."If we called him, he would go quickly to our cell and ask us what we needed."

RemediossaidCarey Abadin seemed to be holding up and was healthy. Since then, however, his plighthas worsened.

Prison pandemic

Throughout July and August, COVID-19 was running rampant through Cuban prisonsand Michael Carey Abadin was soon infected.

"They gave him practically no treatment," saidhis mother. "Finally, they took him to see a doctor and gave him interferon." Interferon has been shown to be ineffective as atreatment for COVID-19.

"After five days they brought him back to the prison, and then he got hepatitis," she said. "And then from hepatitis, he got herpes."

HSV-1 (non-genital) herpes isoften transmitted through contact with other individuals'cold sores or saliva. It'scommon in Cuban prisons.

Yvis Abadinsaid shewas finally able to see her son on October 19 after nearly three months without an in-person visit.

"When I entered the visitors' room, Michael was about three meters away, but I didn't recognize my son until I got closer ..." she said.

She described him as emaciated, with yellow skin pockmarked with lesions. "He didn't give me a kiss or a hug, like he always does," she said."He was unfocused. It was evident that he's in shock, he's traumatized."

No consular visits

Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which both Canada and Cuba are signatories, guarantees Michael Carey Abadin the right to Canadian consular visits. But according to bothYvis Abadinand the Canadian government,Cuban authorities have not granted himthat right.

Yvis Abadinsaidthat a Canadian embassy official told her that because Michael is also a citizen of Cuba, Cuban authorities have denied the embassythe right to intercede.

When CBC News asked Global Affairs (GAC) about that situation, the department responded that it "is aware of a Canadian individual detained in Cuba. Consular officials are in communication with their family and local authorities. Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed."

When subsequently informed that CBC News was aware that consular visits were being denied, a GAC spokesperson said that "Canadian officials remain engaged with Cuban officials and continue to seek consular access to the individual."

Ailen Carbonari of the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa told CBC News that"for the moment, I don't have any answer to give you" about the case.

This week, a man in theArtemisa province was sentenced ten years for breaking a portrait of Fidel Castro on July 11.

Human Rights Watch's Pappiersaidthat prosecutors are demanding decade-long sentences for allegedly damaging government property during the protests. Yvis Abadinsaidshe has been warned to expect her son to spend between three and five years behind bars.

"I think the Canadian government has to protect my son as a citizen. And I don't think they're doing enough for Michael. They could be doing more," she said.

Canada has leverage

"They have a right under international law to be able to see him,"Pappier told CBC. "I think the response needs to be more forceful. It needs to be public, it needs to be vocal and outspoken."

As Cuba'stop source country for international tourism the mainstay of the island's economy Canada has considerable leverage.

But many Cuban-Canadians are wary of the Trudeau government given the decades-long personal relationship between the Trudeau familyand theCastros, as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's past expressions of admirationfor former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Pappiersaidthe Cuban regime also views the Canadian government as unlikely to pressure it.

"Historically, the Cuban government sees Canada as a government that is not willing to speak up on human rights violations in Cuba," he said.

There has been movement in recent months, though. The Trudeau government's first response to pro-democracy protests in July was tepid and downplayed calls for an end to dictatorship. But in the wake of protests by Cuban-Canadians, the government came out somewhat more strongly against the Communist Party's violent crackdown on freeexpression.

"More public statements of this kind could help in this case as well as many others," saidPappier.

Risking all to speak out

Rolando Remedios is speaking up even though he knows it could send him straight back to prison.

He's currently out on parole, with charges of sabotage, public disorder and propagation of disease hanging over his head. (The government has charged protesters with violating COVID restrictions. Government supporters who assembledthe following day were not charged.)

Knowing that Michael Carey Abadin remains in prison, he said, "breaks my heart, because the conditions are terrible. I'm sure that people that live in developed countries, that have humane prison systems, can't fathom what it's like to be a prisoner here, even more a political one, because those can suffer way more.

"That's why I'm here giving you this interview, even though I could go back to prison as a result of it. Because he doesn't deserve to be there."