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Viewing cable 06HAVANA9928, TEMPERS FLARE AT CUBAN HIV/AIDS SANITARIUM

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06HAVANA9928 2006-05-09 22:05 2011-08-30 01:44 CONFIDENTIAL US Interests Section Havana
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). 
 
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