(WSNN) – A bay area resident who is an ex-Cuban political prisoner is suffering from multiple health problems. He’s desperate because he cannot have his family here with him. And he’s crying out for help.
“I feel stressed, I feel depressed,” ex-political prisoner José Batista Falcón said.
Batista Falcón can’t wait for the moment when he can hug his wife and daughter again. They live in Cuba. For this former Cuban politician who has spent years fighting for the freedom of his country inside and outside the island as a member of the UNPACU, the hardest thing he has ever experienced is being away from his family.
“I claimed my wife in 2018, then my daughter was born after the claim,” Batista Falcón said. “She’s already 13 months old and I can only see my daughter by WhatsApp.”
Batista Falcón also suffers from multiple health conditions, and he says he needs his wife’s support.
“I live here, alone,” Batista Falcón said. “And I have to do everything. I have to sit in my wheelchair, take off my prosthesis and clean it carefully. I want my family with me because you see all the health problems I have. I’m also diabetic, I’m dependent on insulin and I have two hernias in my belly, one is bigger than a football and the other is a small one below.”
He can’t even have the illusion of being able to go see them. The last time he met with them was when his little girl was born. He also helped the political prisoners while he was there. The Cuban state security made it clear to him that he could not return.
“I can’t go back, they threatened me,” Batista Falcón said. “And if I return, I’ll go to prison.”
The coronavirus pandemic has also delayed the family reunification process.
“If the embassy could open here in Cuba, everything would be easier for us to leave,” Batista Falcón’s wife Yendy Anmalie Naranjo Baez said. “I have a lot of faith and a lot of hope that we will be together soon.”
The wait has become eternal, and they no longer know what to do. His last hope is in the hands of Congresswoman Kathy Castor to whom he wrote three months ago. He hadn’t received a response until our coverage partners, T-49, spoke with members of the representative’s office. That’s when they contacted him. Batista hopes they can help him before his time runs out.
“I can die at any moment and never see my daughter again or be reunited with my wife,” Batista Falcón said. “And her other daughter because there are three of them.”
*This story came from T49. It was originally in Spanish and translated to English.
