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Cuban journalist Henry Constantín, director of La Hora de Cuba, has lost about eight pounds after 15 days in solitary confinement at Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey, according to his partner, Alejandra García. She says the knife used to justify his punishment was planted and that there is talk of pressuring him to leave Cuba.
García was finally able to see him on Friday, Nov. 6, and described the visit on Monday in a post titled “SOS for Henry Constantín” on La Hora de Cuba’s Facebook page. He is visibly thinner, she wrote.
Nov. 16 marks two months since his arrest. Constantín is regional vice president for Cuba of the Inter American Press Association’s press freedom committee. The IAPA, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders have all called for his release.
The knife that sent him to solitary
Guards found a homemade knife during a search on Oct. 15. García says it did not belong to Constantín.
According to her account, the officers went straight to the knife, and the head of the unit, whom she identifies as Major Dany, picked it up with his bare hands. No fingerprints were ever taken, she says, even though they could have helped show the knife was not his.
García goes further. Citing testimony from other inmates, she writes that a prisoner serving a 17-year sentence allegedly helped plant the knife in exchange for a reduced sentence. That deal, according to the same testimony, was offered by Lieter Pimentel, known as Frank, whom García identifies as the head of State Security’s “enfrentamiento” (confrontation) unit in Camagüey. Other inmates say they saw the two men talking.
In the same passage, García writes that there has been talk of pressuring Constantín to leave the country. She does not say who is behind it.
Cubanos por el Mundo has not been able to independently confirm these allegations and has found no public statement from Cuban authorities on the case.
Two cases and no trial date
Constantín already faced a disobedience charge. He now faces a second case for “disorder and possession of instruments to assault in prison facilities,” tied to the knife. The two cases will be merged. Meanwhile, he remains in Block 11 alongside inmates serving long sentences for common crimes, with no trial date.
García also describes his conditions inside: his belongings have been stolen, he does not receive all the medicine and food his family brings, and he has been threatened with physical attacks. The family tried to leave him water purification products and was not allowed to.
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Her post also relays complaints from relatives of other inmates about spoiled food and water that is not safe to drink, as well as constant mosquitoes, with the risk of dengue, and mattresses full of bedbugs.
Even the prison’s own report, García says, describes him as a peaceful, quiet man who spends his time reading. She closed with a phrase Constantín has always stood by: “My only weapon is the word and the truth.”
Held since Sept. 16
Constantín was arrested on Sept. 16 when he showed up for a second summons at the Second Unit of the Revolutionary National Police in Camagüey. He is accused of disobedience for failing to appear at an earlier summons on Sept. 9. His defense argues that under Cuban law, missing a first summons is punishable only by a fine, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which has called for his release.
On Sept. 24 he was transferred to Kilo 7, a maximum-security prison. Reporters Without Borders demanded his immediate release and counted this as at least his 19th detention. Earlier this month, CpM reported that he had left the punishment cell while his defense alleged irregularities in the case.
His case is part of a broader pattern. A Cuban human rights observatory documented at least 387 acts of repression on the island in October, and in early November independent journalists Camila Acosta and Yoani Sánchez were detained in Havana.
How we reported this story
We read Alejandra García’s full post, “SOS for Henry Constantín,” on La Hora de Cuba’s Facebook page and checked it against her statements to Martí Noticias and against reports by Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists. We did not name the inmate accused of planting the knife because that allegation comes from testimony we have not been able to verify.
We used artificial intelligence tools for research, image rights checks and copy review, under the supervision of our editors, who checked every fact against its source.
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Correction (Nov. 10, 2026): An earlier version of this story stated as fact that Constantín had lost about eight pounds and described the Oct. 15 search as a cell search. The weight loss is García’s estimate, and her post describes only a search. The story has been updated to reflect this.
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