Marcos de la Luz Caballero Granados reports unpaid agricultural labor in prison
His account details work schedules, expected wages, fear of reprisals, complaints about food and the destination of the crops.
Political prisoner Marcos de la Luz Caballero Granados reported that he has spent more than five months performing agricultural work without pay at prisoner camp No. 16. The facility is near El Pitirre prison in San Miguel del Padrón, Havana. He connected his account to working conditions, food and the destination of the produce grown there. The information attributes these claims to his testimony and does not include a response from the authorities.
Caballero Granados said he began working as a farm laborer on April 21, 2026, after being transferred from Los Caneyes camp in Villa Clara. In an October 7 phone call, he described workdays from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. He said the tasks included clearing brush, hoeing and planting bananas, beans, cucumbers, cassava and avocados. He also said he had not yet received any wages. The expected pay, he explained, exceeded 2,000 Cuban pesos a month during the first two months and later stood at about 3,000.
The prisoner said the lack of payment affected nearly all inmates. He also said some continued working because they feared losing their monthly furlough, being transferred to another unit or facing a stricter prison regime if they refused. Regarding food, he described lunches with small portions of rice and a mass he believed might be made from wheat flour and water. He said some food arrived spoiled and caused stomach problems. At breakfast, he said, they often received a hard bread known as “chopo” and an herbal infusion.
Caballero Granados added that produce from the intensive garden went mainly to the military and that prisoners were searched when entering and leaving the work area. The report places his imprisonment on February 11, 2020, and says he was sentenced to ten years for several offenses related to messages against the Cuban government. It also says his case appears in Prisoners Defenders records. The allegations about unpaid wages and prison conditions are based on the prisoner’s own testimony, carried by independent media; no official response was reported.