I met Ailer recently and we quickly became friends. I appreciated her vocation in the scenic arts, a sphere so difficult and one she operates in with great ease. She traveled to Germany with a theater group for this work. I was happy for her.
But this wasn’t the only reason for my sympathy. Ailer also was, and is, an important collaborator in Estado de Sats, where I’ve known her, seen her, and where she serves in various duties.
She wants, like the immense majority of we Cubans, for things to change for the better in the country, that all of the political, economic and civil rights will again be a collective and individual prerogative.
Ailer had the courage and the dignity to attend a farewell tribute that a large group of compatriots held very recently for Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas. Practically in the presence of the coffin, she was enveloped in brawl, created artificially so as to ensure that the farewell was not peaceful.
And Ailer was put on a bus which, according to her, seemed like it was about to turn over at any minute because the brawl continued inside the vehicle, almost until they reached the Playa Tarará area on the outskirts of the city, where they got off at a Ministry of the Interior police station.
Ailer was humiliated, beaten, lying on the floor. She, hours later, would relate all this with ill-concealed anger the to chief colonel of the Fourth Unit of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) at Infanta and Mangrove, in the Cerro neighborhood, where she joined the large group gathered to clarify the status of Antonio Rodiles from the Estado de Sats project. The colonel listened and eyewitnesses say that what could be seen on his face was … consternation.
Now, in addition, I admire Ailer for her bravery, her civic sense, and the decision to demand her rights, which are those of all of us.
August 3 2012