14ymedio

The Escape of Another Cuban Baseball Player Rains on the Celebration of the Day of Physical Culture and Sports

The young player Luis Jesús Quesada is already in the Dominican Republic. (@ francysromero10)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 November 2021 — Cuban national sport is in crisis. This Friday the prospect Luis Jesús Quesada left the island and is already in the Dominican Republic. The athlete from Cienfuegos joined Cristián de Jesús López, Darlin Jiménez and Gustavo Urgellés, who emigrated in the last 30 days in search of opportunities in Major League Baseball in the United States (MLB).

Quesada “left through the legal channels of the country,” according to the journalist Francys Romero. At 16, he said, “he is one of the best talents in his class and, according to my rankings, the number one in batting average and home runs in his category.” In the last National Championship with Cienfuegos, his average was .416 (37 hits in 89 at-bats), 11 doubles and three home runs.

The bleeding of players continues, while the state newspaper Granma highlights in an article Cuba’s “essence of a world sports power” on the Day of Physical Culture and Sports, recognizing the role of physical education as “the basis of Cuban sports.”

A foundation that seems broken with the flight of 12 baseball players last October from the U-23 World Cup that continue reading

took place in Sonora, Mexico, and another three in the Baseball Pre-Olympic in Florida with the desertions of César Prieto, Lázaro Blanco and Andy Rodríguez. To these losses was added that of the team psychologist, Jorge Sile Figueroa.

“I don’t know well about other sports, but young players don’t have the opportunity to grow on the island, they don’t have the freedom to choose, that’s why they run away,” said the players’ agent based in Miami, Carlos Pérez. “The boys shouldn’t have to be jumping from balconies or seeking asylum.” Meanwhile, Romero warned that “with the recent opening of airports in Cuba, the emigration of baseball players will begin to resume its normal patterns.”

The desertions have spread to other disciplines, such as the judokas Ayumi Leyva and Nahomys Acosta and the basketball player Raudelis Guerra, who left the island’s delegation during stopovers in Madrid, Spain, which affected the image of INDER (National Institute for Sports Physical Education & Recreation).

This Friday it was also announced that one of the youths who left the patriotic team in Mexico, Miguel Antonio González, is already in the US and will be represented by David Hastings. The next objective will be to obtain a free agent, although several teams have already shown interest in adding him to their ranks.

Last season he had an offensive line of .318 / .417 / .439, 7 doubles and two homers, plus 14 RBIs. In the U23 World Cup, he registered “five games, with .385 / .556 / .385, 5 hits in 13 at-bats and 3 RBI,” highlighted the FR website.

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Cuba Begins Two-Day Moncada 2021 Military Exercises

Raúl Castro was present with Díaz-Canel at the start of the Moncada 2021 exercise yesterday. (Estudios Revolución)

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 19 November 2021 – The Moncada 2021 military exercise, which was convened to coincide with the date initially requested for the Civic March for Change, began this Thursday in Cuba with the participation of the high political command, including former President Raúl Castro, and in order to “prepare in situations of risk or threat to the security of the country “.

For two days, the main Cuban leaders and military chiefs will study “actions to prevent and face risk situations, threats and attacks on the country’s security,” according to the official state newspaper Granma.

The organ of the Communist Party of Cuba added that the maneuvers are carried out in the scenario of “unconventional war” imposed by the United States.

On Saturday 20, when Moncada 2021 ends, the National Defense Day will be celebrated with training activities and others contextualized in the “War of All the People,” a current strategy in Cuba in the face of eventual aggression.

The Cuban government convened these exercises last October 8, making them coincide with the date on which the Archipiélago opposition platform had requested permission to organize its marches in favor of political change in the country, scheduled for November 20. continue reading

Faced with this decision that the group considered “the threat of the tanks,” Archipiélago changed the day of its mobilization to November 15 to avoid coinciding with Defense Day, but the Government still did not give authorization, making the march illegal, also militarizing the country and threatening or preventing many activists from leaving their homes.

Every year, Cuba holds military exercises at this time, although the specific dates were interpreted as a clear response to the demonstrations, confirmed by the attitude towards the March even as the day moved. In addition, Moncada Exercises are of a higher level than traditional maneuvers and are usually announced much longer in advance.

The Moncada military exercises have been carried out sporadically with the objective of “increasing the level of preparation and cohesion of the leadership and command bodies at all levels, the troops, the economy and the population.”

The first time they were held was in 1980 — the most prominent were in 2007 and 2008 — and they are generally convened as an appeal to the United States that they “not underestimate” the Cuban people.

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Archipelago States Motives for Protest are Still Valid and Extends It Until November 27

Yunior Garcia trapped inside his home as pro-government supporters rally outside.

14ymedio, Havana, November 16, 2021 — After the Cuban government took actions that prevented the Civic March for Change from taking place, the online platform Archipelago issued a statement in response, calling upon participants to extend the protests until November 27, the one-year anniversary of a sit-in by artists and intellectuals in front of the Ministry of Culture. The group states, “The Cuban people have never been more united in the struggle for their rights.

The dissident group is proposing a series of activities to draw attention to its message. It asks people to continue wearing white clothing, carrying single roses, banging metal pots at 9:00 PM every night and spreading the word about what is happening in the country, their families and their neighborhoods, particularly among those who do not have access to social media.

It is also inviting all those sympathetic to its cause to lay a rose at the statue of a Cuban martyr at time time that feels appropriate and safe, documenting their actions so they can be disseminated online. The group characterizes such action as a way to repay “a debt of honor to the Apostle José Martí.”

The group made its proposal in a statement, released after midnight, in which it summarized the previous day’s events. The document criticizes actions by the government, stating it has criminalized and shown contempt continue reading

for the right to freedom of expression, assembly and protest recognized by the Cuban constitution and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It accuses the government of “turning Cubans against Cubans.”

“The Cuban government has responded to our calls the way a dictatorship does: with extreme militarization of the streets, harassment of more than a hundred activists, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, acts of repudiation, threats, coercion and hate-filled speeches,” the document states. The group warns it will not tolerate this escalation of violence against peaceful citizens.

Despite all the efforts by authorities, the group portrays the march as a success. It cites expressions of solidarity it received from 120 cities around the world and from those in Cuba who were able to take to the streets to show a minimal gesture of support. “We have surpassed ourselves as a nation and this is the resounding success of November 15.

The group’s efforts will continue till November 27 and its goals remain the same: the release of political prisoners and prisoners or conscience, respect for the rights of expression, assembly and protest, an end to politically motivated violence among Cubans and the beginning of a dialogue with the goal of to resolving differences by democratic and peaceful means.

At the end of the statement the group suggests November 27 will not mark the end of its activities: “If the Government does not abandon its efforts to violate our rights, we will continue the civic struggle until Cuba is a state of rights, a republic ’of all and for the good of all’.”

The group expressed its solidarity with the many people linked to the opposition who remained unaccounted for, detained or under siege in their homes as of November 16.

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The Day the Cuban Regime Ran Alone… And Did Not Win

On November 14, the authorities placed a bus completely blocking the street Yunior García lives on, when he wanted to go out for a walk in white with a rose. (EFE)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 19 November 2021 — They say that the horse ran alone on the track and reached the finish line first. Locked in their stables and bound with strong chains were the possible adversaries of that contest. The victor could not contain so much arrogance in his body and he celebrated as if his legs — and not his tricks — had carried him. They say it was the 15^th of November, a day when the public was prohibited from witnessing the race.

In an interview with the Russian network RT, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez declared last Monday’s call for a Civic March a failure. “The face-to-face reality, the real, true, physical reality in Cuba indicates that nothing happened in the country,” the minister boasted. To drive it home, he told the complacent journalist: “You have been able to move freely, you know perfectly what happened, you experienced it together with the Cubans and you also know what did not happen.”

To avoid the scenes of people in the streets dressed in white or with a flower in hand, officialdom deployed the largest control operation– meter by meter – in the memory of many in this country. The bitter surprise of the spontaneity of the July 11 protests led to a preparation so that the avenues would no longer be a river of people shouting ‘Libertad‘ and demanding the resignation of Miguel Díaz-Canel. To achieve this, this time they tied up the entire island. continue reading

Police operations, a deployment of State Security agents in civilian clothes, acts of repudiation, threatening messages and the selective cutting off of telephone lines. They made use of all the cowardly tactics and abuses of power in the authoritarians’ manual, and also added to it from their own harvest of Castroism, experts in lying and in the preparation of stage sets. As they themselves tried for years to create the props of a medical power, which the pandemic shattered, for ‘15N’ the set design of “peace and tranquility” was proposed.

But the result was closer to the script of a funeral: deserted streets, murmured conversations in the lines outside stores , which until two days before were pure tumult, trembling hands that could not manage to remove a cellphone from a pocket before the intimidating gaze of the police, and tearful mothers who pleaded with their children not to leave the house that Monday. A white sheet hanging from a clothesline could paralyze the neighbor next door with fear, even the flower sellers hid, or only offered yellow sunflowers and very red roses. Terror starred in the day.

And then the regime believed itself powerful, shook its mane, flaunted the strength of its haunches and showed its teeth. Now, it wants to make national and international public opinion believe that it really earned the gold medal for its abilities and for the support its people gave it, but in the Plaza of the Revolution they know that everything is a lie: that if they had not carried out the the largest and most expensive repressive operation of the last quarter century on this island, Cubans would once again have shown their weariness with the current system.

Nor will the regime be able to prevent the neighing of the locked up horses from being heard. Without respecting the rules of the political game, eliminating your competitors or preventing them from showing their abilities as dissidents, you are only invalidating the court, the referees and the medals. It is forcing an entire people to find another way to get on the podium.
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Cuban Rapper Maykel Osorbo Distrusts Prison Doctors to Cure His Illness

Maykel Osorbo was detained on May 18 and is in a maximum-security prison in Pinar del Rio. (*Proyecto EvolucionEnCuba*/2013)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, November 18, 2021–Cuban activist and art curator Anamely Ramos on Wednesday denounced from Miami that the contrarian rapper, Maykel Castillo Osorbo is at risk in jail, where he has been held in isolation for six months.

Maykel Castillo “is sick”, denounced Ramos on her Facebook page, telling how after his six-day hunger and thirst strike, being in solitary confinement for over two weeks and at least four days in a punishment cell, Castillo called to say he had been taken to the doctor “to have his lymph nodes checked.”

In statements made to 14ymedio Ramos explained that today the singer “does not have a conclusive diagnosis” and he does not believe he will have one because “he will not allow any intervention and for that reason, it is important that he get out of there now.”

She notes that Castillo had been “complaining about his lymph nodes for more than two months” but that, although he told the doctor at the Kilo Cinco y Medio prison in Pinar del Río, she “did not pay it any attention” at that time.

Ramos clarified that she had not wanted to publish this news earlier because everyone was focused on the November 15th march and because she also needed to “hear the details in Maykel’s own voice.” She was finally able to speak with the rapper at the beginning of the week and he told her that “he has lumps all over–under his armpits, near his clavicle, behind his arm. He has been experiencing vomiting, fever, sweats, and extreme fatigue.”

Following a recent exam, “it appears to be a failure of continue reading

the lymphatic system, but the test was inconclusive and Maykel already told me that he will not allow them to perform any invasive medical procedures.” The activists also wrote that she does not trust any diagnosis or treatment that they might perform on Castillo. “If he is that way, it is precisely due to his unjust imprisonment and the mistreatment to which he has been subjected since long before he was in jail.”

Ramos reminded readers in her Facebook post that the rapper has been the victim of more than 120 acts of political violence in a little over a year, “He endured a year and a half in jail for opposing Decree 349. Maykel belongs to that segment of the Cuban population which is persistently discarded. The profound injustice the dictatorship represents includes this terrible asymmetry, where it is these people who always pay the highest price to be free.”

Similarly, she demanded the Cuban State free Castillo and not to deny him “the possibility of attending to his health in a trustworthy place,” if he so decides and “to put the brakes on the violence and the barbarity they have unleashed everywhere and which, in the end, will reach them too.”

Maykel Osorbo was detained on May 18th and on the 31st of that same month was transferred to Kilo Cinco y Medio, a maximum-security prison. He is accused of “assault”, “public disorder” and “evasion” for acts that occurred on April 4th, during a protest on Damas street, in front of the Movimiento San Isidro headquarters, when police attempted to arbitrarily arrest him and he refused to get in the patrol car.

Osorbo had denounced that he is imprisoned “for a song” which has become an anthem for freedom-loving Cubans and their struggle against the dictatorship, referring to Patria y Vida, which he sings with Yotuel Romero, Gente de Zona, and rapper Eliexer Márquez Duany, aka El Funky.

This Thursday, precisely the six-month anniversary of Osorbo’s arrest, Patria y Vida will be sung at the gala of the 22nd Latin Grammy Awards, a song that was nominated twice. El Funky’s participation in the event is confirmed; he traveled from Havana to Miami to attend the gala.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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“Wake up!” Says Pablo Milanes to the Mobs that Serve the Cuban Regime

Cuban singer-songwriter and guitarist Pablo Milanés offered a message of support for the protests called by 15N. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 November 2021 — “It is a beautiful thing that we coincide in showing our claim for absolute freedoms through flowers”, wrote singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés in a message in support of the protests called for this Monday throughout Cuba. Like the author of Yolanda and Yo no te Pido, dozens of Cuban and foreign artists have expressed their support for the Civic March for Change on November 15^th.

“My contempt for those mobs that they use to ‘represent the best of the people’ “Milanés said when expressing his support for Yunior García Aguilera and all the Cubans he represents and who fight inside and outside of Cuba”.

The troubadour also shared the lyrics of his song Flowers of the Future, along with a video performing the song at a concert in Alicante (Spain), on November 11^th. Among the song’s verses is: “Not everything is dead / there is someone awake / who will be thinking / for you and for him”.

“All eyes are on our Cuban brothers, Ojos Sobre Cuba” From Miami, Rosa María Payá asked, after the Cuban Government denied landing authorization for a flight to Cuba on Monday morning in which, in addition to the activist, MEP Hermann Tertsch and influencer Alexander Otaola would travel to support the demonstrations. “Today, the regime could prevent it, but the reunification of our nation is unstoppable, because the people, both inside and outside Cuba are determined to recover the Homeland and Life”, Payá wrote on her social networks. continue reading

I am ashamed that people of my race lend themselves to be like the ancient hunters of savages in their own torture and pain. They are using them

Yotuel Romero, one of the interpreters of the theme Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life), wrote: “On November 15^th, history will definitely change for our suffering people”. Alexander Delgado, from the duo Gente de Zona and also a participant in the song Patria y Vida that has become the anthem of the protests in Cuba, condemned the acts of repudiation against opponents who have made public their intention to participate in the civic protest. “The reality is that the demonstration is a worldwide right,” he said.

“Today is another day that this dictatorship is more despised,” Yomil Hidalgo wrote on his social networks this Sunday, a message that he accompanied with a photo of a silhouette of the Island of Cuba made with white roses. “It is very difficult to live being kidnapped and repudiated for thinking differently, enough injustices already, Cuba belongs to no one or a few, it belongs to all Cubans”, added the reggaeton artist who lives in Havana and asked for freedom “for our people”.

Another musician of the urban genre who presented himself was the Puerto Rican Don Omar: “I go to my Cuban brothers, I bet on the freedom and justice they need so much. They have innocently died in search of respect for the rights of others, which has always been peace”. In other messages supporting the protests, he has used the tags 15N #, #somosmasynotenemosmiedo (there are more of us and we are not afraid) and #patriayvida.

In addition, the clarinetist, saxophonist and composer Paquito D’Rivera directed a “salute of solidarity” to all Cubans who are going to participate in the 15N march “for Cuba’s final freedom”, which has been “prey to totalitarianism for over 60 years”.

On the other hand, clarinetist, saxophonist and composer Paquito D’Rivera directed a “salute of solidarity” to all Cubans who are going to participate in the 15N march “for Cuba’s final freedom”

In a transmission on social networks during a demonstration in support of 15N in Miami this Sunday, trumpeter and pianist Arturo Sandoval, together with Cuban-born actor Andy García, vowed “to support the cause of Cuba’s freedom”.

“Very soon it will be 63 years of that shameful dictatorship of Cuba. It is too much. I believe that these people need freedom, they need to breathe, they need to know what freedom is,” Sandoval said. On November 15^th, he affirmed that it was a day that all Cubans looked forward to with “great anxiety”.

“This is the time to tell the Cuban people that we are with them,” García said, emphasizing: “That repressive dictatorship that exists in Cuba can no longer be allowed”.

“Cuba’s youth, in which I believe a lot, will be able to show the world what it is to live in freedom and democracy and they will be able to teach the triumph of what a new Cuba is”, musician Emilio Estefan said for his part. His wife, singer Gloria Estefan, also expressed her support for 15N, noting that Cubans “will raise their voices peacefully as they did on July 11^th to express their dissatisfaction with that regime that has oppressed them for over 62 years”.

Actor William Levy asked that all eyes in the world be on Cuba. “Let the whole world see what happens. We need all your support to end this dictatorship,” he wrote on Instagram. “One day I left Cuba, but Cuba never left me,” he said in another message.

“Very soon it will be 63 years of that shameful dictatorship of Cuba. It is too much. I believe that these people need freedom, they need to breathe, they need to know what freedom is”

Panamanian singer-songwriter Rubén Blades expressed his full support for the Cuban people and their right to self-determination in a video posted this Sunday on his Facebook page. “I believe in the exchange of ideas on its own, I believe in the possibility that a society can determine its path and its destiny, so, based on that, I am with the people of Cuba, as I have always been”, said the musician.

“In the case of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, we support, as always, those who demand freedom to express their thoughts, the right to vote, and we condemn the government’s repression of their dictatorships,” he added.

On November 10^th, a group of former leftist presidents, artists and writers who support Cuba’s regime, signed a letter published by the official Cubadebate media in which they blamed the United States for any demonstration against the Government of Cuba. They also asked that the United States “stop its attempts to destabilize a nation that at no time has taken action against US security”. Among the signatories are journalist Ignacio Ramonet, writers Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Martín Almada, and musician Chico Buarque.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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A Latin Grammy Award for ‘Patria y Vida’, the Anthem of the Protests in Cuba

“Patria y Vida” performers during a call with Maykel Osorbo. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, November 18, 2021–Thursday, the song Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life] won the award for Best Urban Song at the Latin Grammys, in Las Vegas, USA. Beatriz Luengo, singer and wife of Cuban Yotuel Romero, one of the songwriters, went up on stage to receive the award.

Sung by duo Gente de Zona, Yotuel and Descemer Bueno, who live outside of Cuba, and Maykel Castillo Osorbo and El Funky, inside the Island, the song is, primarily, an homage to Movimiento San Isidro (MSI) [San Isidro Movement] and has become an anthem for the protests of thousands of Cubans who went out into the streets on July 11th to demand “libertad” [freedom] for Cuba.

Patria y Vida will be heard during the main ceremony, from the mouths of its creators. Except for Maykel Osorbo, for whom today marks six months in prison, all of the song’s participants will be on stage. In the song’s video, appearing alongside Osorbo, hugging a Cuban flag, is artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, MSI leader, who has also been in prison since July 11. continue reading

Moments before the ceremony, El Funky shared on social media that they’d been able to speak with Osorbo and, from jail, he was able to share a few words. “We were able to speak with Maykel Osorbo and feel his voice in these very significant moments, he made it clear that the Grammy is for the Cuban people, whether we win or not, we’ve come so far.”

In statements to 14ymedio at the beginning of the year after the video came out, Otero Alcántara said the most important thing about that act was to “call attention to society, the Black people of San Isidro, the Black people of Cerro, those who stand in line.” In his opinion, the audiovisual “helps create that project of a country, one those people can identify with, feel included.”

Since its debut on YouTube this past February 16th, the song broke viewership records and it currently has more than nine million views on that platform.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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Cuban Government Releases Daniela Rojo, But Arrests a Child Under 15 at School

Reniel Rodríguez was taken out of class this Wednesday and driven away in a police vehicle. (Twitter)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 November 2021 — Daniela Rojo was released this Wednesday, as confirmed by the activist herself by telephone to 14ymedio in a brief conversation.

The young woman, moderator of the Archipiélago platform and architect of the initiative for the 15N (15 November) Civic March for Change in Guabanacoa, had been missing for five days and the group to which she belongs had filed a writ of habeas corpus hours before to demand knowledge of her situation before the Criminal Chamber of the Court Provincial of Havana. During the July 11 protests, Rojo had already been detained for a month.

In the text, the refusal of the Police to provide the place of her detention was highlighted and that she had not been able to communicate with her relatives. “She is not registered as a detainee in any arrest record of the Police units that have been called to find out her whereabouts.”

Archipiélago also indicates that Rojo is not the perpetrator of “any crime” and that there was no “complaint against her, nor arrest warrant.” In addition, the platform indicated that her physical and mental health was unknown, and that her personal integrity was in danger “by not having any legal security.”

After her release, the activist Mag Jorge Castro celebrated the fact on Twitter and invited people to continue to demand continue reading

the same resolution for other cases. “Daniela Rojo is free and with her two little ones … the pressure works, now we go for the others … there are hundreds left.”

However, a few minutes later he himself reported the arrest of Reniel Rodríguez. The 15-year-old activist, who runs the Lunatico Debates channel and is the founder of Alianza Juvenil Libertaria (ALJ) (Youth Freedom Alliance), was apparently taken to a Investigation Center in Matanzas.

According to his account, the boy was notified around 11:00 in the morning by a teacher from his school, who asked him to accompany him. They then put him in a police car. “As of now he has not been released. He is only 15 years old, he is a child who will be branded for life, you cowards!” the activist wrote.

The ALJ reported at midnight its leader’s apparent situation via Twitter. “Our colleague, Reniel, is in the EFI (Comprehensive Training School). These centers are run by the Ministry of the Interior, where a complete indoctrination and behavior change for young people is ensured. His head was shaved and he only has access to one call,” they wrote.

This Thursday, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), based in Madrid, offered a public accounting according to which there were “more than 400 repressive actions” on the island during the last week.

Among them, as of Friday, about 120 house arrests with police surveillance, 62 summons to police stations, 50 acts of threats and almost 90 arrests, as well as 14 acts of repudiation and 35 cuts to Internet services are calculated.

The organization has highlighted in a statement the importance of focusing attention on “the victims of the regime,” and demands the release of all those who have been detained for “exercising the rights to freedom of expression and demonstration.”

The Observatory has asked the European Union that the actions of the Government, led by Miguel Díaz-Canel, have “political consequences… Let us reiterate our call to activate the mechanisms contemplated in the EU’s Political Dialogue Agreement with Cuba,” hit demands.

In addition to the arrests related to the 15N, the NGO Cubalex, a legal information center, reviewed this Wednesday the situation of the detainees as a result of the protests of the 11J, which stood at 1,271. Of these, at least 659 are still in prison, 42 have been convicted in summary trials and 8 in ordinary trials.

For 269 more people, according to the report, there are requests for prison sentences ranging from one to 30 years. Cubalex considers of particular concern “the use of the figure of sedition to impose exemplary sanctions on at least 122 people.”

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Cuban Lady in White Sentenced to Six Years in Prison for Participating in the 11J (11 July) Protests

Abascal is also a member of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 November 2021 — The Lady in White Sissi Abascal Zamora was sentenced this Thursday to six years in prison for her participation in the protests on July 11 (11J) on the island. Abascal, who is also a member of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy, was accused of the alleged crimes of contempt, attack and public disorder.

As reported to Radio Televisión Martí by Armando Abascal, her father, the Municipal Court of Jovellanos, in Matanzas, ratified the sentence requested by the Prosecutor’s Office in the trial of November 3 after her participation in the protests that took place in the town of Carlos Rojas. In addition, her father explained, an appeal was filed against the sentence and it will take ten business days for the decision to be known.

The former political prisoner also said that after the first ten days of the trial, his daughter, who is now in home confinement, must be transferred to the Matanzas women’s prison and wait behind bars for “the resolution of the appeal.”

The mother of the 23-year-old activist, Lady in White Zamora Annia, told Diario de Cuba that her daughter was accused by major Silvia Martínez Montero, the political police for Jovellanos. “The trial was rigged. The three lawyers who worked that day made a very good defense, but it is sad that this work is not enough. It is a single power and the Prosecutor’s Office manipulates everything. Sissi was defended by a lawyer from Jovellanos, whose name is Vladimir, but their hands are tied,” he said.

Zamora also denounced that on July 11 his daughter was beaten by several civilian-clad law enforcement officers in front of the continue reading

Carlos Rojas police station when they tried to find out where the government opponent Armando Abascal was being detained.

“The protest had already ended, everyone had withdrawn, my daughters Lisi Abascal, Sissi Abascal and I remained,” he said. “Then a bus arrived full of women in civilian clothes, between 30 and 40, who attacked us horribly. We suffered injuries, my daughter Lisi was hit on the head with a bottle and she had to receive stitches.”

After learning of the six-year sentence for Sissi Abascal Zamora, Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, asked on her social networks: “Where are the henchmen who beat her?” “In Cuba there are no laws that protect you, much less justice. Freedom and justice for Sissi and all Cuban political prisoners without exclusion,” she demanded.

According to the prosecution’s accusation, Sissi Abascal Zamora during the protests shouted phrases such as: “homeland and life,” “down with the Castros” and “down with the Revolution,” and “she asked the local residents to join her.”

The Prosecutor’s Office also argued that the young woman placed a white sheet on the branch of a tree in the park that read “homeland and life,” while the protesters shouted “phrases against the revolutionary process” and expressions such as “henchmen, murderers, fucking police,” and also “banging on pots and pans with sticks.”

The NGO Cubalex, a legal information center, has documented 1,271 detainees as a result of the spontaneous demonstrations of 11J. Of these, at least 659 are still in prison, and, according to a recent report, 42 have been convicted in summary trials and eight in ordinary trials have been verified.

Cubalex considers of particular concern “the use of the figure of sedition to impose exemplary sanctions on at least 122 people,” with prosecution requests of up to 30 years in prison.

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Eusebio Leal Takes Possession of the Plaza de Armas in Havana

Local passersby taking photos next to the statue of Eusebio Leal, recently inaugurated in Old Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 17 November 2021 — The brand new statue of Eusebio Leal, inaugurated with pomp this Monday in front of the Museum of the City, the former palace of the Captains General in Old Havana, by the president-designate himself, Miguel Díaz-Canel, is only approached by national tourists, who are the only ones that recognize the historian of the Cuban capital rendered in bronze.

The gesture of the sculpture, the work of José Villa Soberón and Gabriel Cisneros Báez, which represents the deceased historian in life size, walking with documents in hand and “step alive,” as described by the official press, lends itself to passersby leaning on him and take selfies. He also begins to be the target of jokes and memes.

Leal became known at the national level through a program that Cuban official television broadcast for years under the title of Andar La Habana (Walk Havana), a phrase that has now become popular slang to describe the daily hustle and bustle in search of basic products that many times takes city residents from one municipality to another. continue reading

The place where the figure has been placed could not be more significant. Leal extensively described the wooden street located in front of the palace, the Plaza de Armas, which stands before the door of the building, and El Templete which, a few meters away, marks the founding site of the Villa de San Cristóbal de La Habana 502 years ago.

But above all, because Leal was always a great admirer of European royal houses. When King Juan Carlos I visited the Island in 1999, to participate in the Ibero-American Summit, the historian guided him to the throne that the Spanish royal settlements had been waiting for five centuries, but the monarch declined to sit.

Years before, in a select group of friends, Leal had summed up his admiration for power in one sentence: “I am a monarchist and Fidel is my king,” a premise that he followed all his life, in which he enjoyed official privileges but also had to fight against bureaucracy and prohibitions to promote the restoration process in the historic center of the city.

In addition to his political predilections, this Wednesday there were not many who took a photo with the recently inaugurated statue and most of those who did so were Cubans, before the curious gaze of the tourists who, with self-confidence and without a mask, strolled through the place. Attentive to every cell phone that came out of a pocket were the plainclothes police, fearful that some activist would come to the sculpture to make a sovereign rudeness.

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More than 650 Detainees from the July 11 (11J) Protests in Cuba Are Still in Prison

The moderator of the Archipelago platform, Daniela Rojo, has been missing for the fifth day. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2021 — Daniela Rojo, mother of two young children and moderator of the Archipiélago platform, architect of the initiative for the 15N (15 November), is missing for the fifth day. The young woman was already been detained for almost a month for participating in the protests on July 11.

“The Istanbul Protocol (UN, 2004) strictly prohibits the confinement of women in unofficial or secret places of detention, and warns that in these circumstances, women could suffer sexual and other abuses,” recalls the legal advisory NGO Cubalex, which this Wednesday issued a statement on the networks updating the situation of the prisoners of that day.

Along with Rojo, Lázaro Lamelas Ortiz and Pedro Lago Segura remain unaccounted for, reported the group, which denounces that both the young woman and Osmel González and Pedro Albert Sánchez had their Facebook profiles removed. continue reading

To date, the organization has documented 1,271 detainees as a result of the spontaneous demonstrations of July 11. Of them, at least 659 are still in prison, and, according to their text, it has verified 42 convicted in summary trials and 8 in ordinary trials.

Of 269 more people, the report continues, the prosecutor’s request is already known, ranging from a single year to 30 years in prison. Cubalex considers of particular concern “the use of the figure of sedition to impose exemplary sanctions on at least 122 people.”

To get an idea of the numbers of political convicts, the NGO recalls that before July 11, Cuban Prisoners Defenders registered 152.

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Yunior Garcia: ‘Now the Important Thing is Those Who are Detained Inside Cuba’

This Thursday, García Aguilera will make statements that will reveal the state of terror that exists in Cuba: “I am going to tell everything. It is going to be a very important day.” (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2021 — Leaving Cuba was a “personal” decision that Yunior García Aguilera made at the end of the day on Sunday, November 14, he said this Wednesday. Traveling to Spain was “the only way he had” so that he would not be silenced and thus avoid being annulled by the regime, he said in a conversation with the filmmaker Ián Padrón through his program Right to Reply.

The coordinator of the Archipiélago platform said that his departure has been “celebrated as a victory for” the Government, but what it really won was “the terror that they have implanted. One has to wonder how long that terror can win.” The conversation from Madrid takes place two days after the scheduled day for the Civic March for Change in Cuba on November 15, an initiative that the regime managed to prevent through a coup of repression.

The activist reported that he went to the Spanish Embassy “to request a visa” in expectation of being detained, and thus having the option of leaving the country. “If my only weapon has always been the word, I had to find a way to defend that word.”

He said that a moment before the link with Padrón he had had “a difficult dialogue with the rest of the members of the Archipiélago.” I understand, he acknowledged, that “this is a difficult decision.” continue reading

During the conversation, he also mentioned that since the early hours of Sunday he was harassed at home and admitted that “he was not prepared for it” despite having previously faced violent repression. García revealed that the only person in his building who collaborated and participated in the act of repudiation against him was the president of the CDR [Committee for the Defense of the Revolution], who even offered his apartment so his windows could be covered with Cuban flags. “There were no people from the neighborhood, but there were faces I recognized from the 11J (11 July) team in front of ICRT,” he said, referring to the group that insulted him on that day of protests before he was arrested.

“My family was present, (…) The last few days have perhaps been more difficult than I could have anticipated. When you have a situation of solitary confinement for so long (…) you enter a state where you start to worry not for your life, but for how to face that life with dignity,” he declared.

García Aguilera said that being away from the island does not mean that he is going to renounce his ideas, his principles, his objectives, but he did point out that these are moments that changed his life. “When you experience things that I can only compare to fascism, a rage begins within you that is very difficult to control.”

His aim is to “be useful” and then return to his country, as well as working for the liberation of the Archipiélago activists who were arrested and whose whereabouts are still unknown. “I’m not going to rest until those people are free and safe.” He insists that, although everyone “is waiting for a statement from Yunior,” now “the important thing is those who are detained inside Cuba, who is not allowed to leave their home, who is without internet, who cannot speak.”

He announced that this Thursday he will make statements that will reveal the state of terror that is being experienced in Cuba: “I am going to tell everything. It will be a very important day.”

Yunior is in Spain in the company of his wife Dayana Prieto in a place that he did not want to specify for security reasons for the friends who have provided him with shelter. “We will be here for the next two weeks, in a place on the outskirts of Madrid.” The activist’s objectives remain “intact,” despite the “very hard” moments he has lived through.

University of Havana Plans a ‘Great University Fair’ for the Same Place Yunior Garcia Will March on Sunday

Cuban State Security Announces To Yunior Garcia That He Will Go To The Combinado Del Este Prison

Cuba: A Violent Crowd Surrounds Yunior Garcia’s House and Threatens the Foreign Press Black Berets, Red Kerchiefs and Flags to Silence the Cries of Freedom in Cuba Surveillance and Acts of Repudiation Muzzle 15N in Cuba Cuba: Family Member Confirms to ’14ymedio’ that Yunior Garcia and Dayana Prieto Disappeared on Tuesday
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Yunior Garcia Arrives in Spain ‘With Our Ideas Intact’ and Will Soon Speak of His Departure from Cuba

Until a year ago, Yunior García Aguilera was a ‘respectable artist’ according to the Cuban government, which now constantly describes him as a mercenary. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 17 November 2021 — “We arrived in Spain, alive, healthy and with our ideas intact.” This is what the Cuban playwright Yunior García Aguilera reported in his first communication since he landed in Madrid this Wednesday, at approximately 2:00 p.m. local time (8:00 a.m. Cuban time) on an Iberia flight, together with his wife, Dayana Prieto. In a post published on Facebook, the activist, one of the leaders of the Archipiélago platform and the main promoter of the 15N (15 November) Civic March for Change, thanks the “many people who have made this trip possible.”

“I have been without communication for several days and I need to update myself on the situation of other members of Archipiélago,” explains García, about whom nothing was known since Sunday, when the security forces prevented him from carrying out his plan to march through the streets of Havana. The playwright also announces that “very soon” he will speak about his “odyssey.”

Archipiélago learned of the news of García Aguilera’s departure from the Europa Press agency, which had the scoop, and reported that it would offer a statement as soon as it had “some first-hand information.”

According to El País, diplomatic sources declared that “discreet arrangements had been made for García’s trip for days, that he had a valid long-term visa to enter Spain,” and that leaving the country is “at his own request,” which has not been confirmed since the playwright has not offered his own explanation.

The same newspaper, based on “sources close to García,” continue reading

says that the “decision” was due to “brutal police pressure suffered in recent weeks.”

A representative of the Cuban government assured in statements to Efe that there has been no agreement between Havana and Madrid to facilitate the dissident’s departure from the country, that the Cuban authorities “have nothing to do” with that departure of García Aguilera and that the activist would have processed the tourist visa on his own.

In order to enter Spain, one of the requirements imposed on all travelers from Cuba – along with those from all areas considered at risk in relation to covid-19 – must present a negative PCR test, carried out within 48 hours, prior to their arrival in Spanish territory. There is no record that, since Sunday, García Aguilera and Prieto left their home for this purpose.

García Aguilera and his wife, Dayana Prieto, slept at home on Monday and went “for a walk” on Tuesday morning, relatives who visited the opponent’s home around midnight that same day told 14ymedio.

The mother of the playwright’s wife, visibly nervous, told this newspaper that it is unlikely that someone would break into the house and that García Aguilera’s plan was not to open the gate at the door of his house to any stranger. What they feared was that during their walk there had been an arrest.

The neighborhood where García Aguilera lives with his family, La Lisa, which was completely militarized between Sunday and Monday, presented total calm last night and, apparently, the surveillance had been lifted.

The Archipiélago platform declared the opponent and his wife missing on Tuesday, after a collaborator repeatedly knocked on the door of their house at around 6:00 in the evening without obtaining a response, and then asked for proof of life. Hours later, he confirmed his concern and urgently demanded proof that the couple was in good condition.
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Cuba: Family Member Confirms to ’14ymedio’ that Yunior Garcia and Dayana Prieto Disappeared on Tuesday

Yunior Garcia Aguila and his wife went for a walk on Tuesday and since then no one has heard anything about them. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 17 November 2021 — Yunior García Aguilera and Dayana Prieto slept at their house on Monday and went out for a walk on Tuesday morning. From that moment on, relatives who visited the opponent’s home near midnight of the same day lost track of the couple, according to family members who spoke to 14ymedio.

The La Lisa neighborhood, where García Aguilera lives with his family was completely militarized between Sunday and Monday, but presented total calm last night and, apparently, the surveillance had been lifted.

The Archipiélago platform declared the opponent and his wife missing after a collaborator repeatedly knocked on the door of their house at around 6:00 in the evening without obtaining a response, and asked for a proof of life. Hours later, and after talking to this newspaper which had also verified the absence of García Aguilera, he confirmed his concern and urgently demanded proof that the couple is in good condition.

This Tuesday also, Archipiélago denounced the disappearance of its moderator, Daniela Rojo, who, they say, has been “kidnapped” by State Security. “An official of those entities, without saying the exact word of the crime they commit (kidnapping), made it known to the family with total impudence, and without communicating where continue reading

they have her. Since then, her accounts on social networks have disappeared,” they say in a statement.

In the text, they specify that Rojo “is a young mother of two children” and is one of the members of the Archipiélago “who has suffered the most harassment and threats.” They note that last week she was summoned to the Department of Attention to Minors of the Ministry of the Interior for an “extensive interrogation” where she received “a veiled threat” related to the well-being of her children.

They also denounced “the arbitrariness and human rights violations” against the young woman, and “the treatment she may be receiving” given that previously after one of the “several arbitrary arrests where she was hooded, subjected to prolonged interrogations and harassment” Rojo, who is one of the Archipiélago moderators, published a video on her networks saying she would not participate in the Civic March for Change in order to have “a life and a future” and from that moment they lost communication with her.

A statement from the Commission to Support the 15N (15 November) protesters facing repression, denounced “the increase in the repressive wave” verified since the day before and during the 15th of November.

“There were despicable acts of repudiation, cutting off communication with the outside through intermittent internet cuts, and also internally because that measure was extended in some cases to fixed phone lines,” they said.

Also, in Camagüey, a mob of people went to the headquarters of the Archdiocese and carried out an act of repudiation this Monday against Father Alberto Reyes, who has demonstrated on many occasions against the Cuban Government. The priest earlier this week published a video in which he claimed to have been warned by the regime that clergy like himself who participated in the march called by Archipiélago were going to be arrested.

The group was accompanied by an official vehicle, according to a video broadcast on social networks, where the repressors are also heard shouting offensive phrases against Father Reyes.

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Cuban Priest Alberto Reyes Will be in the Civic March Despite the Ban

For this reason, the priest Alberto Reyes rejects to back down and indicates that his function is, precisely, to be with the citizens who demand freedom.

14ymedio, Havana, 15 November 2021 — Camagüey priest Alberto Reyes, who has demonstrated on many occasions against the Cuban Government, has released a video in which he claims to have been warned that priests like him who participate in the Civic March for Change called by the Archipelago opposition collective will be arrested.

“They have called from the Office of Religious Affairs to report that they are aware of the intention of Father Ronaldo Montes de Oca, Castor Álvarez Devesa and me to participate in the November 15 demonstration with our people and that they report that if we participate in this demonstration, we are going to be arrested,” he explains, looking at the camera.

For this reason, the priest refuses to back down and indicates that his function is precisely that of being with the citizens who demand freedom. “We are priests to preach the Gospel, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ speaks of freedom, it speaks of justice and it speaks of truth, this is what our people are asking for. If being detained is the price for being consistent with the preaching of the Gospel, so be it,” he accepts.

Reyes confirms that this Monday he will go out to support the 15N (15 Novmber). “God willing, tomorrow [Monday] we will be accompanying our continue reading

people through our streets, which are still imprisoned,” he concludes.

Sources linked to the Catholic Church maintain that the head of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Communist Party of Cuba, Caridad Diego Bello, has said in this regard: “Neither amnesty, nor indulgence. There will be no soft hand with priests or religious who participate in the 15N.”

On November 9 , a group of 15 Catholic priests signed a letter in which they demanded that the Police not beat their own people. “We do not want blood to be shed again,” or “to hear gunshots again,” they added, “that is not the path that will lead us to the Cuba we need and that we all desire.”

The letter, addressed to the National Revolutionary Police, State Security and “all those who in these days have been summoned to repress the citizen march of November 15,” urged that violence be abandoned. “Don’t hit the protesters because both you and they live amidst so much scarcity and misery.”

“When what happened on November 15 is written, there will only be two alternatives: talk about those who were summoned to beat and repress but decided to protect and take care of their compatriots; or tell how you hit your brother and how you repressed the person demanding what many others yearn for,”the text said.

Just two days later, the curia joined the petition more smoothly. “Every Cuban should be able to express and share freely and with respect, their personal opinions, their thoughts or their convictions, even when they disagree with the majority,” said the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba, which spoke of the “increase in a climate of tension and confrontation that is not healthy and does not benefit anyone. “

The Cuban Conference of Religious Men and Women (Concur) spoke in the same direction.

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