The Observatory of Academic Freedom accuses the decision of being an act of “censorship”
14ymedio, Havana, July 25, 2024 — Anthropologist and activist Jenny Pantoja Torres has been dismissed from the Miguel Enríquez Faculty at the University of Medical Sciences of Havana (UCM-H). As reported on Thursday by the Academic Freedom Observatory (OLA), the decision was an act of “censorship” carried out by pressure from State Security.
The teacher was under contract and in a trial period; however, she had a positive assessment of her teaching performance, and her boss in the Department of Marxism and History had told her that her services were indispensable. Even so, she was dismissed in “an administrative maneuver to execute the cancellation of uncomfortable intellectuals,” the Observatory said.
The harassment against Pantoja, coordinator of the Pro-Amnesty Committee for political prisoners in Cuba, began a long time ago. On June 18, she was arrested and beaten along with Professor Alina Bárbara López Hernández. After several hours in the hands of State Security at the Playa Police Station, in Matanzas, they were released. Both were traveling to Havana, where they planned to demonstrate peacefully, as the historian does on the 18th of every month.
The harassment against Pantoja, coordinator of the Pro-Amnesty Committee for political prisoners in Cuba, began a long time ago. On June 18, she was arrested and beaten
A day earlier, through social networks, Pantoja Torres had reported that she received threats in a text message from a Cuban number. “Since you have arrived safely in Matanzas, I am warning you that it’s the last time you will,” said the message full of spelling mistakes.
In her post, the teacher explained that she was going to accompany López Hernández, since she could not leave her alone “on a trip to Havana in which she could suffer police abuse again. I hold State Security, the Cuban Government and its police forces responsible for anything that happens to me from now on. I have not committed any crime, nor do I have any legal action against me. I am only trying to do the best that I can for my country that suffers.” She also said that her house was being watched by the political police.
The siege, despite the fact that she was released, did not end. On June 21. OLA reported that “she was subjected to a new cycle of threats.” This time, the political police went to her house and threatened to “end her professional career, telling her that they would prevent her from developing her working life.”
According to the testimony, agent Ariel Arnau Grillet, who has “an extensive record as a repressor, was accompanied by agent Ariel.” At her home, they demanded that the historian allow access to her house to “let them discover what she and Alina are planning.”
The agents accused her of violating several articles of the Cuban Criminal Code, but the teacher ended the meeting by pointing out that she would not have a conversation without the presence of her lawyer. The agents left, but launched a threat: “Forget about working at the faculty and forget about everything.” Shortly after, they stationed themselves in the vicinity of Pantoja’s home and even followed her to her workplace.
A State Security agent showed up that day at the anthropologist’s home, prevented her from leaving and threatened to report her
The OLA reported a month later, on July 17, that a State Security agent showed up at the anthropologist’s home that day and prevented her from leaving. The policeman threatened to report her if she exposed what happened on social networks. According to the observatory, shortly after, a police “fence” of eight officers was deployed around her house: two police officers and six civilian officers, three men and three women.
At the beginning of July, more than 220 writers and artists signed an open letter in which they denounced the “police violence” against López Hernández and Jenny Pantoja. “The use of force, the criminalization of dissent and imprisonment do not solve our real problems. All Cubans have the right to propose our ideas to get out of this crisis,” said the signatories, including the writer Leonardo Padura, the Argentine musician and singer-songwriter Fito Páez and the film director Fernando Pérez.
Pantoja Torres is an experienced Cuban historian and researcher, in addition to being an activist, with Master’s degrees in the area of Social and Philosophical Sciences, specializing in religion.
She has done extensive work in teaching upper, secondary and higher levels, becoming an assistant professor at the University of Havana in the discipline of Anthropology. She has also given postgraduate courses and lectures as part of her time at institutions like the Cuban Institute of Anthropology.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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