By WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
El Nuevo Herald

Lawyer Juan Almeida García, son of revolutionary comandante Juan Almeida Bosque, was detained and complained of degrading treatment by government agents after attempting to leave Cuba illegally, El Nuevo Herald has learned.

''I had no recourse but an illegal departure. You can put me in prison, slip another hood on me or make me disappear in the secret houses, but all I'm asking is to be able to visit a doctor and be near my family,'' Almeida García, whose wife is in Miami, wrote to the authorities in Villa Marista, headquarters of State Security in Havana.

That plea is one of nine letters sent by Almeida García between June 2006 and May 14 of this year detailing his persistent efforts to obtain authorization to travel legally abroad. The documents were sent early this month to friends in Spain and made available to El Nuevo Herald.

Efforts made by El Nuevo Herald to reach Almeida García by phone were unsuccessful.

The requests for permission to leave the country temporarily are based on the fact that Almeida García, 44, suffers from a degenerative rheumatoid disease for which he has been treated in Brussels, Belgium, since the early 1990s. He has not been able to leave the island since 2003.