Desde Dentro de Cuba.

Distribuido por Cuba Free Press, Inc. - http://www.cubafreepress.org

December 10, 1998, Cuba Free Press.

MOTHER REPORTS ON VISIT TO JAILED BLIND DISSIDENT By Ricardo González Alfonso, Cuba Free Press.

HAVANA - Ms. Caridad Cano, mother of blind non-violent dissident Milagros Cruz Cano, 30, and Maritza Lugo, president of the 30th of November Party, visited the young woman at the Mazorra mental hospital in this city's Boyeros neighborhood recently.

They reported that Milagros still has the hematomas that resulted from the beating she received by the police when she was arrested on December 4. The wounds are on her left cheek and left eye.

The mother said, "Conditions at the Cordoba Wing where she is interned are those of a jail, with plenty of bars and no privacy to go to the toilet. The Cordoba Wing is reserved for violent patients and some observers have inferred that this could lead to her being harmed by some of the other inmates.

Ms. Cano also said, "The medical attention and the treatment given to Milagros are good, though naturally she would prefer to be free."

The director of Mazorra Hospital, Dr. Eduardo Bernabé Ordáz Ducunjé told the visitors that Milagros Cruz was interned by judicial order for a medical check-up. Caridad Cano told this reporter that Dr. Ordaz promised Milagros would be transferred to a wing with better facilities.

Ricardo González Alfonso, Cuba Free Press.