TEMPERS FLARE AT CUBAN HIV/AIDS SANITARIUM

C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 009928 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/09/2016 TAGS: PHUM SOCI CU SUBJECT: TEMPERS FLARE AT CUBAN HIV/AIDS SANITARIUM Classified By: COM Michael Parmly for Reason 1.4(d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Around 227 sufferers of HIV/AIDS at a sanitarium outside Havana have reportedly launched a protest over inadequate food and medical care. At the facility in San Jose de las Lajas, in Havana Province, the 227, out of a total facility population of 252, are ignoring guards' orders and carrying out a hunger strike, according to information reaching USINT. Police and K-9 units are said to be surrounding the facility. The action follows the suicide of an HIV/AIDS sufferer at Havana's Combinado del Este prison around two weeks ago, although a clear connection between the two events has not been established. Cubans found to be HIV-positive are restricted to sanitariums for treatment and therapy before their conditional release into the community. But as the current disturbance suggests, conditions at such facilities can be sorely lacking. The protest comes as HIV/AIDS is being addressed openly in Cuban television for the first time in a new soap opera. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Thirty km from the Cuban capital, in the city of San Jose de las Lajas (SJL),more than 200 HIV/AIDS sufferers have reportedly launched a protest over what they describe as putrid food, inadequate medical care, beatings by guards and a ban on family visits. Although travel restrictions and a lack of GOC cooperation prevent us from confirming the disturbance, we received credible reports over the phone from several protesters, and noted that word of the incident has reverberated to other facilities, including at least one maximum-security prison. According to information reaching USINT, the authorities are unwilling to listen to the protesters' grievances. Police with K-9 units are said to have surrounded the facility. No American citizen is involved. ¶3. (C) The action follows the suicide of an HIV/AIDS sufferer at Havana's Combinado del Este (CDE) prison around two weeks ago. The victim, Lazaro Chaja, hanged himself after jailers transferred his cellmate, with whom he had a relationship. (Note: It is not known whether Chaja's suicide precipitated or otherwise contributed to the action in SJL. However, there is evidence to suggest worsening conditions at CDE. Over the past 12 months, its inmate population has soared from 4,200 to 6,000. End note.) ¶4. (C) The protest at SJL comes as HIV/AIDS is being addressed openly in Cuban television for the first time in a new soap opera. For the past two months, Cubans have been glued to their televisions watching "The Dark Side of the Moon," which features a bookish 14-year-old girl who contracts HIV/AIDS from a promiscuous male lover, as well as a married man who finds himself falling in love with a gay man. "Machismo" continues to permeate Cuban society, but tolerance of homosexuality is indisputably far greater today than in the decades following the Cuban revolution, when gays or suspected gays were relegated to "UMAP" labor camps, universities were "cleansed," and countless jobs were stripped from sexual non-conformists. COMMENT -------------- ¶5. (C) The GOC's treatment of HIV/AIDS sufferers is controversial. Cubans found to be HIV-positive are restricted to sanitariums for substandard treatment and therapy before their conditional release into the community. Like the millions of common Cubans without HIV/AIDS, who also lack decent medical care, they belie the cruel hoax that the regime propagates about its health care system. PARMLY