Extreme Malnutrition and Mass Deaths Reported at Boniato Prison

MADRID, Spain – The Center for a Free Cuba released a report by the Council of Human Rights Rapporteurs that describes an extreme scenario of malnutrition and mortality at the Maximum-Security Prison of Boniato, in Santiago de Cuba, where — according to the document — inmates are subjected to conditions that “violate the right to life” and constitute a pattern of “extermination.”

The report, prepared by the Council of Rapporteurs and led by human rights attorney Juan Carlos González Leiva from Ciego de Ávila, states that this prison holds around 2,000 inmates, 90% of whom are believed to be malnourished due to the “famine” imposed by prison authorities. The food shortage has reportedly forced the government to implement an internal classification system across three prison blocks for dystrophic prisoners, categorized by severity: Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3, each holding around 90 inmates.

The report states that around 1,000 inmates are in a state of critical malnutrition, representing half the prison population. Those classified as Grade 3 dystrophic are described as people reduced to “actual skeletons, two or three agonizing and dying each week.”

According to the data gathered, 70 inmates died in 2024 from malnutrition and related illnesses, while 80 have died so far in 2025 due to insufficient food, lack of medical care, and unsanitary conditions.

The prison diet described in the report consists of minimal portions with little nutritional value. The «improved» ration for dystrophic inmates reportedly consists of just one additional spoonful of the usual prison fare: “a sugarless herbal tea and a small piece of bread for breakfast; three or four spoonfuls of poorly cooked rice, a bit of broth with no substance, and, as the main dish, a spoonful of colored wheat flour paste, repeated in the afternoon.”

The document adds that many inmates survive thanks to the food brought by their families, “who also live in precarious economic conditions.” However, it states that prison authorities frequently restrict the amount and types of food prisoners are allowed to receive.

Over the past two years, numerous reports of inmate deaths in custody at Boniato have been documented by independent organizations, which, according to the report, confirms the responsibility of the Cuban state and the systematic violation of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. The Council of Human Rights Rapporteurs also emphasizes that this situation is not unique to Boniato, but is representative of the majority of prisons across the country.

In light of this situation, the Center for a Free Cuba issued a call to the international community “to echo the terrible reality faced by both political and common prisoners in Cuba, and to demand that the regime in Havana grant access to Cuban prisons to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has not been authorized to directly document these violations since 1989.”

So far in 2025, the Cuban legal advisory organization Cubalex has recorded 38 deaths of individuals in custody. This number is confirmed by the Cuban Prisons Documentation Center (CDPC), which, in its recently released annual report, documented at least 60 deaths in Cuban prisons between March 2024 and March 2025.

In March 2024, Cubalex published a report on deaths while in custody in Cuba, concluding that the phenomenon reflects a systemic human rights crisis. The report noted that prisons and detention centers are characterized by overcrowding, lack of hygiene, and a scarcity of basic necessities such as drinking water, ventilation, and adequate nutrition—conditions that increase the risk of disease and preventable deaths. It also denounced poor medical care, including delays or outright denial of treatment and inadequate responses to emergencies, which have resulted in multiple avoidable deaths.

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