Verdecia, 51, is a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), the largest dissident organization in the country, and a resident of the municipality of Río Cauto, Granma. According to the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press, a Miami-based non-government organization, Verdecia, a vocal critic of the Castro regime, has for years denounced the terrible living conditions of Río Cauto on social media.
In February, the Castro regime unjustly detained Verdecia and charged him with the alleged crime of “propaganda against the constitutional order.” Verdecia was sent to the Las Mangas prison in Bayamo and forced to experience inhumane conditions such as having to sleep on cardboard on the floor and inadequate food. The Castro regime did not set a trial date for him at the time.
Martí Noticias spoke with his wife Eliannis Villavicencio, who explained that Cuban authorities handed a document to Verdecia this month detailing the prospective ten-year prison sentence for his “crimes” in the yet-to-be-scheduled trial. Villavicencio explained to the outlet that the couple decided not to seek out a lawyer and that Verdecia will instead represent himself at his trial because “lawyers here defend the same system,” stressing that “getting a lawyer is pointless.”
“In Cuba, it is worse to think differently than to kill a person. How many criminals are free for lack of evidence and this innocent man for only asking for freedom and better living conditions for his family and for the people of Cuba, will be condemned as if he were a murderer, criminal, or a waste of society,” Villavicenco, using her husband’s account, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. “I want to add that there are no more criminals, murderers, liars, manipulators, and violators of human rights than those who have ruled our country for more than 60 years.”
Villavicencio explained to Martí Noticias that Verdecia called her on Friday and let her know that prison authorities took away his regular phone call privileges and forced him to use a phone in the prison’s offices so as to monitor the conversations between Verdecia and his wife. She posited that the extra surveillance prevented him from revealing what is happening to him or to other inmates under supervision.
“Today was his turn in the morning and he hasn’t called me. A lot is going on in there, and it seems they’re afraid he’ll tell me about it. So they’re prohibiting him from using those phones, which is how he normally called me to explain, ‘Look, this is happening, that’s happening,’ so I could publish it,” Villavicencio said. “There are many prisoners suffering from malnutrition due to the lack of food in this prison.”
“Imagine what they give him for lunch. There are many prisoners, both political and common criminals, who have been there for over a year and the prosecution has not brought them to trial. So, as a result of that, they took away his normal phone calls,” she added. “Then, on the day I was talking to him, on Friday, when he told me to publish that they had taken away his phone calls at that very moment, the military officer, the instructor who was there, took away his phone.”
Martí Noticias pointed out in its report that Villavicencio asked for help on Facebook to purchase or obtain a copy of the Cuban Constitution for her husband’s defense.
“Hello, good afternoon. My name is Eliannis Villavicencio Jorge. Please, I need to buy or borrow a copy of the Constitution of the Republic and the Criminal Procedure Act. My husband, Alexander Verdecia Rodriguez, needs it to prepare his defense in court, even though the dictatorship has already decided what it is going to do,” the post read. “It is good to be prepared to refute all their lies and nonsense. Freedom and justice for all political prisoners. Thank you.”
Martí Noticias further explained that Verdecia has been tried several times in the past for political reasons. His wife reportedly detailed on social media that “this would be the sixth time he has been sanctioned by the communist courts.” Cuban outlets detailed that Verdecia was expelled in 2014 from his job at a state-owned rice company for being a member of “Priests for Change,” a religious group of Cuban Christian pastors founded in Bayamo, Granma, in 2012 who oppose politically controlled churches.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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