Alarcon denounced on Wednesday the confinement in a punishment cell (the hole) of Hernandez on July 21 adding that Cuba’s procedures to contact prison authorities and the US State Department in order to clarify the situation had been unsuccessful.

The top legislator noted that Gerardo suffers from some ailments, including blood pressure problems, for which he had been asking for medical examination since April. He was finally seen by a physician on July 20 and diagnosed problems requiring treatment. Apparently, the ailment is caused by a bacterium that, according to the physician, is circulating among inmates, some of whom have become seriously ill.

 

Alarcon said that the Cuban Parliament will begin its plenary session on Sunday with an official declaration condemning the mistreatment of Gerardo Hernandez, who —along with Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino and Rene Gonzalez— was arrested in September 1998 and given excessive sentences for monitoring the activities of extremist anti-Cuba groups in South Florida that were planning and carrying out terrorist attacks against Cuba.
 

During a meeting of the Foreign Relations Commission of the Cuban Parliament on Thursday, Alarcon urged legislators to carry out actions so that the US authorities, at least, return Gerardo Hernandez to his normal life in the penitentiary of Victorville in California.

 

“But we can’t not be satisfied with that; our struggle will only end when we have our five comrades back with us and that will only be possible with our hard work,” Alarcon pointed out.