Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06HAVANA9928
2006-05-09 22:05:00
CONFIDENTIAL
US Interests Section Havana
Cable title:  

TEMPERS FLARE AT CUBAN HIV/AIDS SANITARIUM

Tags:  PHUM SOCI CU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO8904
RR RUEHAG
DE RUEHUB #9928 1292205
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 092205Z MAY 06
FM USINT HAVANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7069
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES
RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
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).

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