Prisoner commits suicide after pleas for help go unheeded
SANTA CLARA, Cuba - January 9 (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - An inmate at the Villa Clara Youth Prison committed suicide after prison authorities refused to provide him access to psychiatric help, said his sister, adding that he had tried to kill himself several times before.
Roberto Alfonso, also known as "the Peruvian," was serving a 45-year sentence for theft and unauthorized slaughter of cattle and had been confined to the Increased Security area of the prison when he killed himself January 1. It was not known how he did it exactly, but the death certificate listed asphyxia as the cause of death.
The man's sister, Ana Rosa Alfonso, said she had brought her brother's case to the attention of officials at the Directorate of Prisons, but, she said, "The answer I always received from captain Osmany González was a gesture of dismissal. Every time we asked him to transfer my brother to a psychiatric facility, he responded that he was faking in order to obtain an early release."
Alfonso's husband said his wife's brother was the fourth person to kill himself in the Increased Security area of the prison.
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