University of Havana Offers Unrestricted Admittance Even if Students Fail the Entrance Exam

Archive image of the University of Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 28 February 2022 — All  Cuban high school graduates who want to continue their studies at the university level will be able to do so this year even if they fail the entrance exams. This is how René Sánchez Díaz, an official from the Ministry of Higher Education, informed the official press as he boasted that everyone “will be able to obtain university degrees.”

The results of the entrance tests will only determine the order of the ladder for granting the available places, he specified.

The first group of students who will have the right to choose a university career will be those who have passed the exam with a minimum of 60 points, then those who have failed, and then the pre-university graduates who did not take the entrance exams

Lastly, graduates from Technical and Professional Education, from the Worker-Peasant Faculty, as well as from previous pre-university courses and other cases “assessed by the Provincial Admittance Commission” will be placed. continue reading

Reynaldo Velázquez Zaldívar, another director of the Ministry, clarified that, for now, this measure is of an “exceptional” nature, without specifying the reasons that have led them to take it

The new school year will begin on 18 April  2022 and will run until 3 February 2023, for a total of 35 weeks, which is nine weeks fewer than the duration of an ordinary course.

Reynaldo Velázquez Zaldívar, another director of the Ministry, clarified that, for now, this measure is of an “exceptional” nature, without specifying the reasons that have led them to take it, and assured that the number of places offered is 100,022, 9,000 more than the last year.

This increase in places contrasts with the notable decrease in the number of students getting a university degree. According to official figures, in the 2019-2020 academic year, 88,000 students entered Higher Education, compared to 90,691 in 2015-2016.

The official decision is reminiscent of what happened in the 70’s and 80’s in Cuba, when University education was accessed without tests and when only the students’ grades in their exams during the course were taken as a reference for the ranking.

The consequences of the abolition of these meritocratic customs, together with the indoctrination that has accompanied education for more than 60 years, have caused the quality of university studies to decline, something recognized even by Cuba’s own authorities.

This same Monday, in a note published in the newspaper El Invasor about the malfunction of State companies, an official from the University of Ciego de Ávila stated that they had detected “training problems in Cuban standards in university education itself”.

Since March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic began to affect the Island, students of all levels have attended classes virtually, through national television

Starting in the 1990’s, with the acceptance of the dollar in Cuba, university courses began to suffer a strong devaluation relative to trades where foreign currency could be acquired, especially in the tourism sector, even if the jobs required little training, such as cleaning in hotels.

In any case, the scheduled dates for the entrance exams are March 1st, 4th and 8th (for the subjects of Mathematics, Spanish and History, respectively), with an extraordinary call for those who, justifiably, cannot attend those first days, which will be held on April 4th, 6th and 8th.

Since March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic began to affect the Island, students of all levels have attended classes virtually, through national television. After health authorities and the Government decreed a relaxation of the measures, classes have restarted in person and programs have been adjusted so that students can make up for lost time.

Higher education students were the first to join classes last year. They did it virtually through a platform created specifically for university students. This way, they were able to attend some classes that had been postponed due to the closings.

Translated by Norma Whiting

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Mother of a Young Cuban Accused of Sedition Arrested on Charges of Contempt

A leukemia patient, Castro had to spend “a week in hospital in January and it was quite serious because she fainted as a result of toxoplasmosis.” (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 2 March 2022 — Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of young Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro, who faces a 12-year prison sentence for demonstrating on July 11, has been transferred to the 100 y Aldabó prison. As reported on his social networks by the activist Arián Cruz, Tata Poet, Castro “has been charged with contempt” after six days of investigation.

Last Thursday, the woman had initially been taken to Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters in Havana where, Cruz denounces, that they returned to Castro “to psychologically torture her under forced interrogations.”

Days before, on February 17, José David Hernández and Misleydis Rodríguez, her friends and activists from the Opposition Movement for a New Republic were also arrested after a State Security search of their home.

A leukemia patient, Castro had to spend “a week in hospital in January and it was quite serious because she fainted as a result of toxoplasmosis,” the activist had noted in another post, in which he also specified that every day she must take “a series of medications that they did not let him give to her” when he went to inquire about her the first time. continue reading

“I would like to point out that this sick mother was arbitrarily arrested at her home, that she did not show any resistance, and that despite knowing that her arrest was unjust and illegal, she decided to cooperate and go with them to what was supposed to be ’a interview’, that’s how State Security loves to call these repressive, repulsive, and criminal interrogations,” Cruz said.

Last Friday, a habeas corpus petition was delivered in favor of Castro to the People’s Provincial Court of Havana. As Cruz detailed this Wednesday to 14ymedio, they have not yet received a response from the court, but they have already hired a lawyer for Yudinela Castro.

Since her 18-year-old son was taken to jail, Castro has denounced each of the injustices that have been committed against the young man and has not stopped demanding his freedom. She has also denounced “the lies” the regime told in the trial that was held against her son Rowland, accused of sedition and with an initial prosecutor’s request of 23 years, later reduced to 12.

On several occasions, Castro has been arbitrarily detained by State Security officials for interrogation, but she has always reiterated that “whatever it takes” nothing will stop her in her fight to achieve her son’s freedom.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Félix Navarro, Former Prisoner of the Black Spring, Sentenced to 9 years in Prison for 11 July Protests

Sayli Navarro and her father were arrested on July 12, one day after participating in the July 11th (11J) demonstration in Perico, Matanzas. (Collage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 2 March 2022 — The opponent Félix Navarro and his daughter, the Lady in White Sayli Navarro Álvarez, received this Wednesday the sentence that resulted from the trial held against both last January. Dissident Manuel Cuesta Morúa has detailed to 14ymedio that father and daughter were sentenced to 9 and 8 years in prison, respectively.

Cuesta Morúa expressed his support to both in on social networks, and reported that the defense has initiated an appeal process.

The opponent also detailed that the prosecution asked for 15 years in prison for Félix Navarro and 11 years for his daughter, released on bail pending trial, and in both cases they are charged with the crimes of public disorder, attack and contempt. “We hope that in some way the appeal will at least lower the sentences because in the end they did nothing, in fact they were objects of violence by the political police,” said the dissident, a member, like Navarro, of the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba.

Félix Navarro, 68, was one of the political prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003, when 75 opponents and independent journalists received long prison sentences. In 2011, as a result of several negotiations between the governments of Spain and Cuba and with the mediation of the Catholic Church, they were released and most went into exile, but Navarro was part of the twelve who decided to stay in Cuba. continue reading

Sayli Navarro and her father were arrested on July 12, one day after participating in the July 11th (11J) demonstration in Perico, Matanzas. The arrest occurred violently in the town’s police unit when they went to find out about the situation of other activists detained for following the peaceful protest in San Antonio de los Baños and dozens of other cities throughout the island.

Last August Navarro began a hunger strike in prison that he ended at the end of September in protest at his unfair imprisonment. At that time, his daughter denounced that he was in a “very delicate” state of health and that for that reason, after 25 days, he abandoned it.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Sentenced to 14 Years For the 11 July Protests in Cuba and on Hunger strike, He is the Father of Two Babies

Gerardo Díaz Alonso, imprisoned for the 11 July protests, along with his wife and one of his children. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 24 February 2022 — Gerardo Díaz Alonso, one of the protesters on July 11 in Cárdenas, Matanzas, has been on a hunger strike since Friday, protesting that he was sentenced to 14 years for the crimes of sabotage and public disorder.

His wife, Mercedes Sánchez, with whom he has two children – one a year and a half old and the other just 20 days old – tells 14ymedio of “the pain and impotence” she feels seeing her partner in that situation, which she considers “an injustice”. She is also worried because Díaz Alonso “suffers from kidney disease”, and she fears that his body “will not react very well”.

The prison director himself called relatives to convince him to stop the hunger strike. Thus, Sánchez was able to see her husband this Wednesday. “His state of health is very delicate,” warns this 23-year-old, who says that the prisoner’s mother, who accompanied her, “became very upset” when she saw him: “He is skinny, his face had no color and she felt faint when she saw the state he was in, she urged him to drink a bit of water, and he accepted”. continue reading

Díaz Alonso told his wife that they had him in a “punishment cell” but that several days after he started the strike, they transferred him to the infirmary because his health had deteriorated

Díaz Alonso told his wife that they had him in a “punishment cell” but that several days after he started the strike, they transferred him to the infirmary because his health had deteriorated.

According to her account, they promised him that this Thursday someone from the Prosecutor’s Office would visit the prisoner”, supposedly, for him to put forward his situation”.

Although the trial was held in December, he did not receive his sentence until January 29th. The family was unable to get a hold of the judgement  until days later, on February 3rd, which prevented them from appealing. “As far as the Military Prosecutor’s Office, we only had five days”, explains his wife, who complains that the papers arrived late and they were not even notified of the sanction by phone.

The trial, denounces Mercedes Sánchez, “was the worst, they even presented manipulated photos”. The woman says that “only one witness accused him, and he was associated with the police” and that in the only video presented in the trial as incriminating evidence, he “is not shown throwing rocks at anything”, but “standing on a corner”.

Díaz Alonso’s lawyer, continues his wife, argued at the trial that her client “has mental retardation problems”, but far from taking it into account, “they made up many things, and made him look as if he were the worst offender”.

“They said they had made inquiries around the neighborhood, but no official ever went there to do anything”, she continues, “they just made up a circus of lies”.  Lies, she laments, “made up by them, as they have done with all the prisoners of 11J, just to find reasons to condemn them”. 

“They said they had made inquiries around the neighborhood, but no official ever went there to do anything”, she continues, they just made up a circus of lies”

Her 33-year-old husband was sentenced, along with eight other people: Daniel Joel Cárdenas Díaz (sentenced to 15 years), Leidiana Prohía Guevara (12 years), José Carlos Hernández Barrio (14 years), Yoniel Santana Rodríguez (10 years), José Antonio Cue Monzón (10 years), Enoc Noé Fernández Fernández (10 years), Yasniel Roque Valle (5 years) and Jorge Luis Argüelles Bayate (15 years), who was also charged with robbery with violence.

Three other defendants were not sentenced for sabotage, but for other alleged serious crimes: Alain Roselló Fernández (7 years for robbery with force and public disorder), Jorge Gilberto Carrillo Isaac (6 years for robbery with force) and Reydel Canasí Reyes (7 years for attack and public disorder).

The case of Daniel Joel Cárdenas Díaz, 34, is especially dramatic, since he was also injured during his arrest. The images of that moment, precariously recorded, spread like wildfire on social networks and, ultimately, served the regime to try to discredit him.

On the other hand, another 11J prisoner, William Manuel Leyva Pupo, has also been on an “indefinite” hunger strike since Tuesday. The young man from Holguín, 21 years old and sentenced to 12 years for the crime of “sedition”, sent a telephone message from prison declaring himself a “peaceful dissident” and “arbitrarily in prison”, and argues that he prefers to die before to continue suffering what he calls “subhuman and degrading psychological torture” imposed by the regime on all the July 11 protesters.

Leyva Pupo was already “plantado*” on a previous occasion, just when his trial was held, last January, along with nine other prisoners, in protest about the high prison sentences requested for them by the Prosecutor’s Office. For Leyva Pupo they asked for 18 years, which was reduced to 12 in the final sentence, received this February.

Also on a hunger strike, but without trial and for more than a month, is Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. The artist, leader of the San Isidro Movement, was arrested on July 11th, but not for demonstrating, but for a previously charged cause, the same one for which singer Maykel Castillo Osorbo remains in prison. During a party on April 4th on Damas Street, in Old Havana, in which activists and local residents sang the song Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life], the police tried to arbitrarily arrest Osorbo, but he refused to get in the patrol car.

*Translator’s note: *Translator’s note: A ’plantado’ — literally ’planted’ — is a term with a long history in Cuba and is used to describe a political prisoner who refuses to cooperate in any way with their incarceration.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Silence in Front of the Russian and Ukrainian Embassies in Cuba, Separated by 400 Meters

Diplomatic headquarters of Ukraine located on Fifth Avenue, in the municipality of Playa, Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 24 February 2022 — “No to war” and “Fascist Putin” are some of the cries that are chanted on this day in front of Russian embassies around the world to condemn the invasion of Ukraine that began at dawn this Thursday. This is not the case in Havana. The area around the emblematic diplomatic headquarters look deserted, nobody with a loudspeaker or a poster, nobody condemning the war that has begun.

Nor is there a single Cuban offering messages of support in front of the Ukrainian diplomatic headquarters, on Fifth Avenue, about four hundred meters from the Russian one. Located in an area where almost all the houses are embassies or state institutions, a highly guarded place with few neighbors, the house was totally closed this Thursday and nobody was seen around, not even the guards.

The reaction in countries like Poland, the United States, Germany, Spain and France was immediate, hundreds of citizens took to the streets early in the morning asking Vladimir Putin to put an end to the attacks. Some exiled Cubans were present at the protest at the Russian embassies in Madrid and Paris. A hundred Ukrainians gathered there since morning. Something similar happened at the consulate of that country in Barcelona.

The same scene was repeated at the gates of the Russian Embassy in Rome, where the demonstrators had banners denouncing the military action and Vladimir Putin, promoter of the war.

Also in Prague and other Czech cities a series of demonstrations have taken place in front of the Embassy of the Russian Federation to show support for Ukraine and, in addition, another one was announced for this Friday in Wenceslas Square with the slogan: enough war in Ukraine.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

‘With the Veto Against Anamely Ramos, the Message is Very Clear: No Cuban is Safe’

Anamely Ramos is curator and member of the San Isidro Movement. (Twitter/@MarioJPenton)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 16 February 2022 — Experts consulted by 14ymedio have found no precedent for the government to have vetoed the entry of a Cuban citizen residing in Cuba, as happened this Wednesday with the art curator and activist Anamely Ramos, who was unable to board her American Airlines flight bound for Havana.

The director of the Miami airport, with whom Ramos met after expressing her intention to stay at the terminal if she was not allowed to travel to Cuba, assured the media gathered at the scene that it is the first time he has encountered such a case.

Lawyer Eloy Viera recalls, in statements to 14ymedio, that other Cubans went through a similar situation, but the “particularity” in this case is that Anamely Ramos “has not lost her rights, because she has not been outside of Cuba for more than 24 months.”

Cuban law establishes that if a national remains outside the country continuously for more than two years, he loses his residence and, with it, he also loses his rights, such as voting or medical assistance. Many émigrés have been prevented from entering the country for this reason. continue reading

“I’ll go to a public place and will camp out, because I don’t have a home right now, I don’t have a country.  I’m not going to anyone’s house who wants to take me in, nor do I want to ask for asylum”

However, the case of Anamely Ramos is different, since she has not lost her rights. The decision to veto her entry in Cuba is clearly a “repressive” act that sends “a very clear political message: no Cuban is safe and, once she leaves, her return to Cuba can be prevented.”

“There is a rupture in what has happened with Anamely,” he argues, because “she has no other place to legally regularize herself and her only legal foothold was Cuba. Even so, they decided to deny her entry.”

In this regard, the lawyer mentions the case of the activist Lidier Hernández Sotolongo, a Cuban resident in Uruguay, who was not prevented from entering, but who was regulated once he was in Cuba. And precisely, he points out, “one of the arguments used by officials in that case was that legal Cuban residents could not be prevented from entering but they could be prevented from leaving.”

After a meeting with Miami airport authorities and with American Airlines employees, Ramos reiterated that her interest was to stay at the airport to “apply pressure.” However, the director himself warned her that this was not allowed and accompanied her to a meeting with immigration authorities.

“They have treated me very well,” the activist acknowledged in a direct broadcast. “I’ll go to a public place and will camp out, because I don’t have a home right now, I don’t have a country.  I’m not going to anyone’s house who wants to take me in, nor do I want to ask for asylum.”

In a live broadcast on her Facebook profile, she explained that the airline did not specify the reasons why the regime had denied her entry, and that they simply told her that “there is a protocol with Cuba and with all the countries of the world” that they “have to abide by.”

The fact that Ramos complied with all the legal and health requirements to re-enter Cuba suggests that the Cuban government activated Article 24 of the Migration Law. This limits the entry into the national territory to “every person” who, among other activities that are considered illegal, organizes, stimulates, carries out or participates in “hostile actions against the political, economic and social foundations of the Cuban State.”

This article establishes other assumptions, such as “National Defense and Security reasons” or “being declared undesirable or expelled.”

“Cuba’s border has to continue to be in Cuba,” she said. “It cannot be at the American Airlines gate, that is inadmissible”

This Cuban norm violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its Article 13, which recognizes the right “to move freely and choose one’s residence in the territory of a State” and “to leave any country, including one’s own, and to return to one’s country.”

For Viera, Article 24 is a mechanism “that increases the administrative discretion the regime” has, when deciding “without the need to substantiate or notify” the affected person. “The fundamental problem with this is that the decision is made behind people’s backs. They only find out if they are about to board a plane to Cuba. They are overseas without the administrative authorities having notified them through a resolution or a document that they could use at a later date in a judicial environment,” he added.

In addition, he believes that it is “outrageous from any legal point of view” even from the way the article is written. “The term used is ‘undesirable.’ Who wishes that a person may access Cuba, who is that authority, under what criteria?” questions Viera, who assures that this way of formulating “what it does is favor arbitrariness and the discretionary, and generate defenselessness in the person who suffers it and has no way to fight it.”

In statements to the press gathered at the international terminal, Ramos denounced the attitude of the airline. “Cuba’s border has to continue to be in Cuba,” he said. “It cannot be located at the American Airlines gate. That’s inadmissible.”

This Wednesday afternoon, Ramos left the airport and explained that, according to the regulations, “nobody can stay who is not going to board a plane” and American Airlines maintains its decision not to let her board a flight to Cuba. “I will continue the protest in a public space, in front of the Versailles [restaurant]. This is to be continued. My demand continues to be that my #RightToReturn be respected.”

Translated by Norma Whiting

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Rebound of Covid-19 in Cuba Forces a Postponement of Havana Book Fair

Image taken at the Rosario Castellanos bookstore, located in Mexico City, in October 2021, when it was reported that Mexico is the Guest of Honor Country for the Havana Book Fair. (Government of Mexico)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 23 January 2022 — Cuba’s Ministry of Culture has postponed the Havana International Book Fair to the month of April, due to the rebound of covid-19 on the Island since the arrival of the omicron variant. The thirtieth edition of the event has had to be postponed according to institutional sources.

“The measure responds to the epidemiological situation facing the region, where the largest number of visitors to this cultural event come from each year. Related to this, it has been taken into account that this important event is the one with the largest popular attendance of those sponsored by Cuba’s cultural institutions,” the note points out.

It also explains that the postponement was made in response to a proposal from the Cuban Book Institute.

This year, Mexico is the Guest of Honor Country and the original dates announced were February 10 to 20. With the change in date, the dates for the book fairs in all the provinces of the country will also be changed.

At the close of this Friday, January 21, Cuba there were 3,401 new cases of covid-19 and five deaths, as detailed this Saturday by the Ministry of Health in its daily report. A week ago the country exceeded one million cases of coronavirus since the first contagion was detected in March 2020. continue reading

In November, given the improvement in the epidemiological situation, schools were reopened and international tourism, a key sector for the economy, was reactivated. Some services were also reactivated and cultural activities in cinemas and theaters resumed. However, in recent weeks some events have had to be canceled or postponed.

The National Meeting of Troubadours Longina Canta a Corona also postponed its twenty-fifth edition due to the current incidence of the pandemic. The event was scheduled for January 6 to 9, but all face-to-face activities were postponed until further notice.

According to official data, more than 87% of the country’s total population — 11.2 million inhabitants — have received the complete schedule of three doses of one of the three Cuban-made vaccines against covid-19: Abdala, Soberana 02 and Sovereign Plus.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Protesters’ Trials in Cuba: ‘Black Berets, Red Berets, It’s Like They’re Going to Bring in Bin Laden’

Justice 11j has denounced that in the trials carried out to date, one of the repressive patterns is the police operations at the courthouses. (Santa Clara Court/Saily Gonzalez)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 25 January 2022 — Despite the harassment to which they are subjected by State Security and the strong operations at the doors of the courts where the July 11 protesters are being judged, many of their relatives have made it clear that they will not stop asking for justice in loud voices. One of them is Marta Perdomo, the mother of Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo, whose trial began this Tuesday in Quivicán, Mayabeque.

“This is full of red berets, black berets, State Security agents and police, as if they were going to bring Bin Laden,” the woman told 14ymedio outside the municipal court, moments before an officer snatched her cell phone from her hands. “Yeah, they’re going to take my phone away, so I can’t do anything else,” she managed to say.

Perdomo is one of those who have joined the initiative proposed by several activists to carry out cacerolazos — protest by banging on pots and pans — and broadcast them on social networks in support of political prisoners. “My children are innocent, I ask for freedom for my children,” the woman cries out in a video as she beats on a pot.

Nadir and Jorge Martín are the only defendants in that trial, and they face, respectively, eight and ten years in prison. “Jorge is accused of double contempt while Nadir is accused of attack,” explains his mother, insisting that these are “fabricated accusations.”

Perdomo expected to see her children enter the building, but it was not possible. According to what another close relative told this newspaper, “no one could see the kids from afar,” because “the truck turned the corner and they took them in the back way.” continue reading

In the week of January 24 to 28, the authorities have scheduled four trials in the provinces of Havana, Mayabeque and Matanzas. “Thirty-nine protesters will be tried for the crimes of sedition, sabotage, public disorder, contempt, assault and sexual assault,” the Justice 11J platform summarized on its Facebook page .

Among those to be tried is the musician Abel González Lescay, who is facing the weight of the prosecutor’s request for seven years in prison.

The siege of family and friends who wanted to approach the courts has been the trend in these trials. In regards to them, the Attorney General’s Office published a statement on Monday to justify itself, saying that the accusation of sedition for the protesters – the main reason why some face sentences of up to 30 years – is for “attacking the socialist state.”

On Tuesday, Michael Valladares, husband of the writer and political prisoner Maria Cristina Garrido, another of the 11J detainees, denounced that he was preparing to give his support to Marta Perdomo outside the court, but State Security did not allow it. “The place is full of State Security agents,” he tells 14ymedio. “There are about four blocked blocks, full of soldiers, and 100 meters away there is a cordon. They threatened me with a fine and that they would arrest me if I insisted on going through.”

The scenario was similar this Monday in Matanzas, where the opponent Félix Navarro and his daughter, Saily Navarro, are being tried, among other detainees, according to Annia Zamora, mother of the Lady in White Sissi Abascal, who also participated in the protests and who was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.

“Yesterday they did not allow us to leave the town of Carlos Rojas, there is a strong operation,” said Zamora, who also said that the trial was prolonged, and that at seven o’clock at night “they were still in court, with the accused sitting on the bench.” For her, it is something “incredible” that even at that time they wanted to continue the trial. “A lawyer from the neighboring province of Mayabeque said no, that she had to return home” and they stopped until today when they have resumed,” she explained.

Zamora denounces that she has suffered this harassment since Sunday. That day, she says that she and her husband were arrested when they were leaving to go to mass. Taken to the Jovellanos police unit, they were kept until seven at night. “They are violating all our rights for only wanting to go to mass to pray and ask for the freedom of our political prisoners,” she protests.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

‘Many in Cuba Haven’t Even Heard About the Hundreds of Political Prisoners’

The musician Abel González Lescay, one of those prosecuted for 11J. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 25 January 2022 — When his trial was postponed in December, Cuban artist Abel González Lescay, arrested after demonstrating peacefully on July 11 in Bejucal, Mayabeque, thought he would end up being released. Paradoxically, that seemed to him “bad news,” because it could, in his opinion, “overshadow” the denunciation of the rest of the prisoners and those sentenced for the protests.

But that his process would be dismissed was an illusion. The young musician, a second-year student at the University of the Arts in Havana, currently under house arrest after spending a week in detention in July, will be tried this Wednesday in San José de las Lajas. Before that municipal court he has summoned to gather, that day, “everyone who wants to demand justice for Cuban dissidents.”

“We must not stop expressing ourselves at such a serious moment for the Cuban nation,” he wrote on the networks, hoping that his trial could “mark a turning point in the future of this horrible story.”

In a conversation with 14ymedio, Lescay says that despite the fact that “there is a movement in support of political prisoners that is growing quite a bit,” it is a minority phenomenon, and that “if you go out into the streets and talk to people,” there are few who at this moment who are aware of the prisoners. “Many haven’t even heard of the hundreds of political prisoners,” he laments.

The artist faces a sentence of seven years in prison (according to his file, three years for “public disorder”, three years for “aggravated contempt of a continuing nature” and one year and six months for “contempt of the basic figure of a continuing nature”). The Justice 11J platform, which keeps a record of those arrested, imprisoned and convicted of the demonstrations, has confirmed what the musician suffered when he was arrested on July 12: “They took him out of his house naked, humiliated him and beat him.” continue reading

“When they took me out of my house, it was done by some policemen who did not have an arrest warrant or anything,” he tells this newspaper. “They forced me into a car without telling me where we were going.”

The six days he spent behind bars the young man remembers as “a rare experience,” in which he suffered “many injustices” that he tried to take in the best way, “as a spiritual retreat,” as a means of survival.

“To say what was the worst thing that happened in prison is complex because it is something compact, one thing feeds the other,” he argues. “It’s not just that the head of the prison wanted to kill me and that in front of all the prisoners he shouted that he’s going to kill me: it’s a guy who’s injecting something into your shoulder without you wanting him to, and you don’t even see the person’s face. He comes with the syringe and puts it in your shoulder while telling you that it’s obligatory and that’s it.”

And he continues listing horrors: “It’s that when you turn on the faucet, the water that comes out is disgusting, you have coronavirus and there is no doctor to see you. Being locked up for four days without talking to anyone, sick and without medical assistance is torture.”

After being released, on July 18, “complicated” days arrived. “It’s ugly what happens in prison, and then on the street you continue for a while feeling as if you’ve been poisoned,” he says. Those days he was very nervous: if, for example, someone parked a car in front of his house, he would run to the window to see what it was about. “I remember that one day I was walking down the street and I saw the moment when they picked up three kids and punched them as they put them in a police car. When I saw them, their whole faces were deformed.”

Despite everything, he is proud to have taken to the streets that Sunday. Since the “events in San Isidro,” he explains, referring to the hunger strike of the MSI artists in November 2020 to ask for the freedom of the anti-establishment rapper Denis Solís, “I was already wanting to do something.” He was not at the artists’ sit-in on November 27, 2020 before the Ministry of Culture “because he was far away,” and he felt “very powerless” that day.

For this reason, on July 11 in Bejucal, after seeing online what was happening in San Antonio de los Baños and Havana, the young man did not think twice.

“I saw that the people who were in the street were my buddies and that there were thousands of people, and I went out into the street,” he recalls, “to unload, to shout freedom.” And he continues: “People went out on the street, for the first time in their lives, to express what they felt. The situation was serious at that time, they gave us electricity for only four or five hours a day in the middle of the quarantine, and the covid was going up every day, with new cases. There was no way not to go out on the street. “

For Lescay, almost all of the 11J protesters are in disagreement “with the things that are happening in Cuba politically.”

A shocking moment for him was when he found out about the prosecutor’s request, in October, when he thought the worst was over. “I had to get serious not to succumb,” he narrates. “When they tell you something like that, reality is destroyed, because six months, a year, is one thing something that one can even endure… but seven years? When I looked ahead and calculated that I would come out of prison at age 30, it was very hard.

In the meantime, however, he has tried to get on with his daily life. “They haven’t told me anything else since I got out on July 18, not how I have to behave nor what I have to do,” he says, surprised. “I am under house arrest, but they have not told me to go sign any paper that follows up that I am complying with the measure, and they have not summoned me either.”

He hasn’t had any problems at the university either. In fact, he says, when he started this semester he went to talk to the rector, who referred to him as “a talented student” and even gave him psychological help to recover from the impact of those days he spent in prison.

This Wednesday, together with Lescay and also Bejucal, they will process six other detainees, four of them “very young,” between 17 and 21: Ángel Miguel Martín Caro, Jorge Luis Reynoso Barrios, Omar Valenciano Donatien, Raúl Xavier Díaz Pérez, Alain Yamil Sánchez Baluja and Livan Viel de la Peña. Regarding them, whose cases are not as visible as his, he insists on drawing attention: “It is useless for me to ask people to go to my trial to pressure them to release me, but not the others, nor does it helps me to keep my mouth shut and try to go to trial waiting for them to shake my hand.”

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuban State Security Evicts Journalist Yadiris Fuentes from Her Home

Yadiris Fuentes is a reporter for ADN Cuba. (Julio Llopiz-Casal)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 22 January 2021 — Serious threats from Cuban State Security are forcing independent journalist Yadiris Fuentes to, in a few days, move out of the home she’s lived in since June 2021. The owner of the home was warned by political police that if he did not evict her, he could face a fine or even lose his property, which is an illegal rental.

As Fuentes told 14ymedio, she will only be able to remain in the home until February 5th, the last day through which her rent is pre-paid. “Since the state of siege we all had around November (stemming from the announcement made by Archipiélago) they had not bothered me anymore, they had not called me nor seen me,” she explained.

“On Monday, January 17th I was not home, but Manuel called my cell phone, the agent who ’takes care of me’,” says Fuentes, who for years lived in Cienfuegos although she is originally from Pinar del Río. The official told her he wanted to see her in two days, last Wednesday, in the afternoon. “Summon me, if you want to see me, summon me,” she replied.

The ADN Cuba reporter let the Security agent know that she refused to respond to verbal summons and to date, she has not received an official document to appear before the authorities; thus, she believes the objective of the political police “was to intimidate and that, perhaps, to them, the rental thing is enough” harassment. continue reading

“The day after that call, my landlord informed me that State Security went to see him and told him that, ’either he evicts me, or they would fine him 15,000 pesos’ and that they could confiscate his house. Obviously, I will not subject anyone to live under that pressure and I said if that is how it is, I’d leave on February 5th,” she declared.

Fuentes assures us that these pressures to leave her without a place to live will not divert her from her profession, “This won’t influence anything I do as a journalist but while I concentrate on where to live, obviously I cannot work in the same way and they know that and I believe that is part of the method.”

The reporter stated that this type of pressure has been seen before and that her case “is not extraordinary nor unique… It is a technique they’ve already used a lot, especially against women, as if they view us as weaker and more susceptible to pressure.” Among the independent reporters who have suffered this type of pressure so they’d lose their rentals is Camila Acosta, a contributor to the online news portal CubaNet.

Faced with this dilemma, she says, “A friend always appears,” who can take her in for a few days while she finds a place to live, but she insists that she will try “not exploit these avenues” because she does not like “to be bothering anyone nor subjecting them to the pressure from State Security.”

“Right now, finding a rental is super difficult. There was a time when Havana was the easiest place to find one because there were several channels for finding them but right now, for example on Revolico, the online platform for buyers and sellers, there are very few options. Most of the ads are for people looking for rentals,” she says.

According to her experience, looking for options these days, she’s noticed that prices “have increased a lot” and that right now “everything is above 7,000 or 9,000 pesos,” (between 280 and 360 dollars, according to the official exchange rate), and when she communicates with the owners, they inform her that they are already taken.

The independent reporter is aware that what she is experiencing “is a cyclical story,” and that wherever she lives they can, once again, pressure her landlords, even if the rental is legal.

This scene has served as motivation for a group of independent Cuban female journalists to launch the Casa Palanca campaign, with the goal of fundraising to acquire a property. With the initiative, shared on Verkami, the activists and reporters want to create a network “of linkages, protection, and emotional and psychological support.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Ten July 11th Prisoners in Holguin, Cuba Begin Hunger Strike Protesting the Sentences Sought by the Prosecutor

Police deployed outside the tribunal in Santa Clara where, this week,  July 11th (11J) protesters were tried.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 15 January 2022 — Ten prisoners in Holguín, for whom the prosecutor maintained its request for very high sentences went on a hunger strike following their trial for the July 11th  (11J) protests. This was reported by Dr. Alejandro Raúl Pupo Casas on his social media, alerted by the mother of one of the defendants, William Manuel Leyva Pupo, a relative of the doctor.

For this 20-year-old, the prosecutor sought 18 years, and the same for Reymundo Fernandez Rodríguez, Jorge Luis Martínez García, Marcos Antonio Pintueles Marrero and Yoel Ricardo Sánchez Borjas.

The same source warned that the prisoners’ families will join their protest, although she did not name the other prisoners who were on hunger strike.

The sentences will be officially handed down on February 11, according to messages shared on Facebook by family members of the accused, and they all take for granted that the judges will bend to the prosecutors’ requests, as is usually the case in political trials. continue reading

Three other trials for 11J also ended on Friday in Santa Clara, Havana, and Mayabeque.

In this city, the news agency Efe reports that according to family members of the prisoners, a trial was held without the families’ prior knowledge.

For now, we know that in Holguín is where they requested the harshest sentences for July 11th protesters accused of “sedition”. Prosecutor Fernando Valentín Sera Planas–included on the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba’s list of oppressors along with dozens of his colleagues–sought 30 years in prison for Miguel Cabrera Rojas, Yosvany Rosell García Caso, José Ramón Solano Randiche and Iván Colón Suárez for the crime of sedition; 28 years for Maikel Rodríguez del Campo and Mario Josué Prieto Ricardo; 25 for Cruz García Domínguez, Miguel Enrique Girón Velázquez and Yasmany Crespo Hernández, and 22 for Yoirdan Revolta Leyva.

The only woman facing such high penalties in Holguín is Jessica Lisbeth Torres Calvo, for whom they are seeking 27 years, the same as her current age.

We are also aware of four minors tried for the same crime–Yeral Michel Palacios Román, Ernesto Abelardo Martínez Pérez, Ayan Idalberto Jover Cardosa and Keyla Roxana Mulet Calderón–the original request of 15 years was reduced to between five and seven years.

During the last day of the trials, State Security stepped up its harassment of the prisoners’ friends and family who have publicly protested.

In Santa Clara, where 16 protesters were tried, activist Saily González was detained for several hours, as were family members of Andy García Lorenzo, arrested in the morning, they were heading to the tribunal, as they did every day since the start of the trial on Monday.

According to sources close to Saily González, her arrest occurred when she was headed to present a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of García Lorenzo’s familyAll of their phones were confiscated and they were each assessed a fine of 3,000 pesos. “She was very agitated, crying, they took her phone, the hard drive on which she had the habeas corpus document, her earphones. Now neither she nor Andy García’s family has a way to communicate,” reported activist Víctor Arias, whom González visited following her release at 7 pm sharp.

Arias also confirmed that Andy García’s sister, Roxana, and her partner Jonathan López were released, but he alerted that his father, Pedro López, “left the interrogation and there is still no news from him.”

Andy García’s family has been one of the most active in denouncing the irregularities of the trials in which, they assure, the prosecution’s witnesses lie. According to Tayri Lorenzo, the young man’s mother, in the courtroom in Santa Clara one of them said that State Security negotiated a fine for him in exchange for his testimony to implicate the accused.

They are not the only ones suffering harassment by the political police. Yudinela Castro, the mother of Rowland Castillo, a 17-year-old accused of “sedition” and for whom the prosecutor seeks 23 years of deprivation of liberty for participating in the 11J protests in Havana, told 14ymedio that State Security has been pressuring her not to denounce her son’s situation.

“Yesterday I received a summons, I was not at home but they called my phone and left it under my door. It was around midnight,” she said. She was so bothered to see that paper as she arrived home, that she ripped it up.

The civilian agents who identified themselves as Ignacio and Elías, she continued, always tell her they are going to accuse her of “contempt or sedition” for what she posts on social media and the declarations she has made to the press. “They tell me I am associated with terrorists and counterrevolutionaries.”

Castillo, incarcerated in Occidente’s Juvenile Prison in El Guatao, is from Mantilla and the Sunday of the protests, he was arrested on the corner of Toyo in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, one of the epicenters of the protests and a place where a patrol car was overturned.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

A Ration Store Clerk in Havana Posts Signs So People Will Stop Asking Her if There is Coffee

A ration store (bodega) located on e Street between 23rd and 21st in Havana’s El Vedado district with a sign that says “No coffee has come in.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 11 January 2022 — “No coffee has come in and no coffee has come in.” The clerk at the ration store on E Street between 23rd and 21st, in Havana’s El Vedado district, has chosen to put up two large signs with these words, as she is tired of saying it over and over again to customers who come in asking about the product, while she has no idea when there will be coffee.

“I put up the signs so that people would be warned,” she says with annoyance, while noting that at the beginning of the year the official press published  that the distribution of coffee through the ration book corresponding to January was imminent. “It is not only coffee, there is no compote or milk for children, there are minors who have not had milk since last month,” she adds bluntly.

In another ration store in the same neighborhood, at 27th and A, the picture is the same. “There is no coffee here either,” said the clerk.

Where the product does appear is on the black market, but only now and then. A few blocks from E Street, at the agro-market on 19th and B, this newspaper was able to verify that an informal vendor was offering each package, exactly the same one that is distributed in the family ration basket, at 50 pesos. But residents of the area say that it is not always available in the informal market.

The disappearance of ration-book coffee, and its disappearance in stores that take Cuban pesos or only foreign currency, has coincided with a significant rise in the price of the package that emigrants abroad buy for their families on the island. continue reading

Mayra, a resident of Centro Habana, says in a smiling tone that “her mind cannot function without a sip of coffee.” A few days ago, she was forced to ask her daughter, an emigrant in Spain, to buy her a package from one of the online stores.

Her daughter “flatly” refused, she says, because “a 250-gram package of Cubita or any other brand costs more than $20 on these sites.” For example, one of the stores that offers its merchandise on the Cuballama page, managed from Miami, is selling 250 grams (half a pound) of the El Arriero brand for $25.

“Luckily a friend from the neighborhood, who despite living alone in his house has five more relatives who are  now living in the United States still listed on his ration book, sold me the six packages that he received from the bodega last month,” explains Sergio, a resident of Cerro. “Thanks to that I still have coffee. He sells me each packet for 40 pesos because otherwise I would have to give up to 60 pesos for one on the black market.”

Brewed coffee is also absent in private coffee shops. “I go all over El Vedado and Central Havana looking for a place to have a snack and, incidentally, have a little cup of coffee and they aren’t selling it anywhere,” says Madelaine, a housewife who decided to go out this Tuesday to do some shopping in the agro-markets. “Even in the cafés they put the price on the board, but all the shop assistants tell me the same thing: ’We don’t have coffee’.”

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Family Members of Those Arrested on July 11 in Cuba Plea with EFE to Cover Their Trials

Family members of political prisoner Andy García joined the #EFECubreLosJuicios [EFECovertheTrials] campaign. (Facebook)
14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 7 January 2022 — The Cuban activist and businesswoman Saily González Velázquez, along with others such as Salomé García Bacallao, and family members of those detained on July 11th (11J), have started a social media campaign for the Spanish news agency, EFE, to cover the prisoners’ trials.

“There is still time for foreign press credentialed in Cuba to cover the trials of political prisoners. Several family members and activists have already joined the campaign [with the hashtags] #EFECubreLosJuicios [EFECovertheTrials] and #SOSCuba. Let’s support them,” said González on Twitter from Santa Clara, where she works in the private sector.

For her part, García Bacallao, emphasized that “from January 11th through the 14th four children will be tried in Holguín for the political crime of sedition,” and until now, the Spanish agency “has not covered a single ordinary trial of more than 200 July 11th protesters.”

Activists and citizens on the Island have joined the initiative on social media using the hashtag #EFECubreLosJuicios as a way to demand the agency inform on the legal proceedings, during which some have received sentences that exceed 20 years in jail. continue reading

González explained to us that she shared the idea with a WhatsApp group that brings together family members of those detained on July 11th and civil society actors. “Every once in a while initiatives to support political prisoners are presented there and it occurred to me to launch this campaign to raise the visibility of the situation, since we already know we have no other way to help them because, in Cuba, the legal tools that would allow us to help them do not exist.”

Furthermore, she says the campaign is based “on the responsibility that EFE has, as an international press agency credentialed in Cuba, to cover these trials,” and because it is often “picked up by other European media.”

Over twenty family members have joined the initiative, says González. “We hope more will join because the important thing is to pressure EFE to respond, if not, to make it clear that the agency is being complicit with the dictatorship and to show the lack of mechanisms available to Cuban civil society and family members of political prisoners to achieve justice.”

Jonathan López Alonso, a relative of political prisoner Andy García Lorenzo, said that what they intend to accomplish with this campaign is “for these communications channels which are credentialed in Cuba and do not do their job, to do it.” This young man’s trial will take place on January 10th and he is accused of public disorder, contempt, and assault.

“They hardly cover any of what the opposition and civil society do in Cuba. EFE covered what happened with Yunior García Aguilera in November when his home was under siege, but it is unjust that they covered that and not this. Why don’t they also do this with the trials, which is so important when they seek sentences of up to 25 years?” denounced López.

Bárbara Farrat Guillén, mother of 17-year-old Jonathan Torres, who has been in prison since August 13th awaiting trial for his participation in the 11J protests, also joined the campaigned, as did activists Daniela Rojo, Camila Rodríguez, and Leonardo Fernández Otaño. The latter, on his messages of support, also makes demands of other international press agencies such as AP, Reuters, AFP or television station CNN.

Although support for the initiative is growing, activist Saily González regrets that family members “still have not decided whether to speak publicly,” and they resist “using the few mechanisms we have to exercise our rights or at least try to,” because in her opinion it is something civil society “would love to” support.

“Family members are not accustomed to using the available mechanisms, almost no citizen here in Cuba is; first of all, they don’t know what they are, they do not perceive themselves as citizens with rights. While they decide, we will continue occupying our own social media, because the streets may belong to the revolutionaries, but social media belongs to us,” she confirmed.

Last November, Cuban authorities rescinded the press credentials of EFE journalists in Cuba, in the lead up to the so-called “illegal” Civic March for Change. Later, some of the credentials were reinstated; however, according to the agency, its delegation in Havana is depleted and it needs its entire team to return to work.

Since then, EFE warned its subscribers that the decision of the Cuban authorities in the last several months “have decimated the delegation’s team,” in Havana where currently, “only two journalists can continue working.”

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuban Journalists Esteban Rodriguez and Hecto Luis Valdes are Admitted to El Salvador

Cuban reporters Esteban Rodríguez, in white, and Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho, flanked by El Salvador’s human rights attorney, Apolonio Tobar, and the general director of Migration and Immigration, Antonio Cucalón. (Twitter / @ migracion_sv)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 5 January 2022 — After 24 hours of uncertainty  at the San Salvador airport, where they arrived “fleeing terror” in Cuba, independent journalists Esteban Rodríguez and Héctor Luis Valdés have been admitted to El Salvador, “while they are given humanitarian assistance and their immigration status is resolved,” according to local authorities.

The two Cubans were interviewed by the director of the Department of Migration, Ricardo Cucalón, in the presence of the human rights attorney, Apolonio Tobar. They have left the International Airport to go to the capital, where “they will be supported with accommodation and food.”

At the San Salvador airport, Tobar had declared to the German television station Deutsche Welle that “government institutions” had been called on to bring the activists food and added that he would talk with them to find out “what is the situation and what is their destination.”

“We have been stranded here for more than 36 hours at the San Salvador airport after the Nicaraguan regime denied us entry to their country,” Tobar told the local newspaper El Mundo, after leaving the Valdés Cocho air terminal, and he thanked president Nayib Bukele who intends to help them and the Department of Migration for the “excellent treatment.” continue reading

Esteban Rodríguez, for his part, told reporters that he was in Cuba’s Combinado del Este prison and that he was taken from there “to be expelled from Cuba… They have forced me to leave the country,” he said, “for wanting to think differently, for wanting to practice independent journalism.”

“I had been under torture for eight months, in dark places, I was under threat of death all the time,” denounced Rodríguez, who said that he still had the marks of the handcuffs with which he had been transferred directly from the prison to the airport.

Valdés Cocho explained that “several NGOs” helped him “pay for the passage” and thus “achieve the release (of Esteban) since State Security constantly threatened to leave him suffering harassment in Combinado del Este.”

“We don’t even know what legal status we have, we have requested help and we have received it,” he said.

This morning, Valdés Cocho published a post on Facebook reporting that he and Rodríguez had been forced “to make the decision to leave” the country “bound for Nicaragua,” although he added that his intention was to stay there for a few days, to end up arriving at a place where many Cubans arrive “fleeing the terror perpetuated by a totalitarian system.”

However, according to their testimony, the route had a stopover at the Tocumen airport (Panama), from where they had to fly to El Salvador before continuing to Managua. It was at that point, upon arriving at the San Salvador airport, when they were called by the loudspeaker to inform them that Nicaragua, governed by a partner of the Cuban regime, Daniel Ortega, was rejecting them.

Valdés Cocho also said that Cuban State Security had taken both of them to the airport and told them that they were expelled and that they could never return to Cuba.

 

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Two of Cuba’s Obispo Street Protesters Are Released After Eight Months in Prison

Protesters on Obispo Street in Havana on April 30, 2021. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 4 January 2022 — The activists Inti Soto and Ángel Cuza, two of the six protesters arrested after the April 30 sit-in on Obispo Street in Havana, were released on Tuesday, after eight months in prison, confirmed Mary Karla Ares, an independent journalist also arrested during the protest, told 14ymedio.

Cuza was in the Combinado del Sur prison in Matanzas. “I just spoke with him, really he hasn’t even come home, he’s on his way. I’ve been in contact with him all this time and now he called me to break the news,” Ares said.

For her part, Soto’s wife, in conversation with this newspaper, said that the activist was released on Tuesday afternoon and has been in the Taco Taco prison, in San Cristóbal, Artemisa. “We are happy, but very nervous. We are on our way to pick him up because he called us to go and get him,” she explained. Last September, activists Thais Mailén Franco Benítez and Yuisan Cancio were also released. Previously, in May, Mary Karla Ares had been released from prison. They are still keeping reporter Esteban Rodríguez in prison; his family has no news about when he will be released.

In their protest, the protesters tried to approach the house of the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was then on a hunger strike, when the Police tried to prevent them. At the time, they sat down to protest against what they saw as a limitation of their right to free movement and were detained.

The video, broadcast live from the house, sparked broad solidarity with the detainees of that day. Amnesty International was one of the first international organizations to call for the immediate release of these protesters.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.