Our campaign has learned, from opposition activists in Cuba, who are close to the Ladies in White, that the previously announced transfer to a mental health facility of political prisoner Antonio Villarreal has not happened.

Last Thursday, penal authorities at the facility where Villarreal is currently being held told his wife that he would be transferred soon, apparently in terms that made it sound imminent. This information was then relayed to members of the Ladies in White, and other opposition activists.

The family of Villarreal lives in a remote village in the central province of Villa Clara, and communication with them is sporadic and difficult. They can only be reached by phone at a communal telephone in the village, and only yesterday was it possible for Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz to contact Silvia Aguado, Villarreal’s wife. She told him that despite what the penal authorities told her last Thursday, she found him on Sunday at the same minimum-security facility or labor camp where he was on 20 May.

We will continue to monitor as closely as possible, and inform on developments in the situation of political prisoners in Cuba.  More importantly, we continue to demand the liberation of all Cuban political prisoners.