The Party secretary and the governor of the province are pictured in total happiness with Mayelín Carrasco
14ymedio, 9 March 2025, Havana — Yudelkis Ortiz, the secretary of the Communist Party in Granma, who last Friday put an end to the protest by the residents of Río Cauto, published an unusual photo on Saturday. Sitting next to Mayelín Carrasco Álvarez, whose release the protesters were demanding, the leader said that the woman was “very sorry for her way of acting.” Days before, the mother had been arrested for protesting alone against hunger and state neglect.
“Cuba is a State of Rights (sic) and more obedience and respect for legal norms is needed,” the official wrote on her personal Facebook profile. “Demanding a right or several rights does not imply that it has to be done in a way that generates disrespect or disorder in relation to the norms of social coexistence established in the Constitution of the Republic. There are other ways and methods for this,” she added. The governor of the province, Yanetsy Terry Gutiérrez, also appears in the image.
According to Ortiz, Carrasco “has been cannon fodder for haters” and has acknowledged that “the consequences of her actions affect her loved ones the most, especially her children, because we have not seen those who are inciting her anywhere, showing concern for or worried about her situation.”
According to Ortiz, Carrasco “has been cannon fodder for haters” and has recognized “the consequences of her actions”
The leader also clarified, taking advantage of the March 8th celebration, that she is also a mother. “From that feeling of love we share,” she said.
On March 5, a Facebook post by the Río Cauto government described Carrasco’s attitude as “unacceptable,” especially when “in Cuba we work and fight so that no one is left helpless.” The note claimed that the mother had been offered “five job opportunities as a general assistant in an educational institution and other jobs at the Calisur Shrimp Farming Business Unit (UEB),” but that she had refused to work for the State.
Her partner was also offered a job as a guard and charcoal maker, she adds, but he did not accept either. She continues: “Mayelín’s family was provided with a temporary ’facility’ with walls made of boards and zinc. The DTSS board of directors evaluated the provision of basic resources for her three minors. She was also given a hectare of land belonging to the UBPC of Guamo Viejo, but she never showed up at the Agriculture Delegation to carry out the corresponding procedures.”
According to the same statement, “a family is considered vulnerable when there are no cohabiting persons fit for employment, they are disconnected for justified reasons, their income is insufficient and there are no family members obliged to provide assistance.”
Carrasco Álvarez, 47, climbed onto the platform at Plaza de Río Cauto last Wednesday and shouted her complaints from there
Carrasco Álvarez, 47, climbed onto the platform in Plaza de Río Cauto last Wednesday and shouted her complaints from there. “Where is the Revolution?” she asked, adding that “There is no Revolution because everything has collapsed,” according to a video released by the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, José Daniel Ferrer. Shortly afterward, two men interrupted the protest and forcibly took the woman away.
On Friday, hundreds of residents demanded the woman’s release in the streets of the town of Guamo. “We want Mayelín!” shouted the protesters, who also banged on pots and pans.
After gathering in front of the municipal government, the protesters met with Ortiz and were surrounded by a strong police presence. “The Revolution is not going to take away anything that it has given you. The Revolution was the one that gave you electricity. What was Río Cauto before the triumph of the Revolution? […] There was hardly anything here. Everything that has been built here is thanks to the Revolution,” the official is seen telling the neighbors, who listened to her in silence, in a video shared by profiles close to the government.
The official press played down the importance of the event, describing it as a mere exchange between concerned residents and the authorities. Nor did they mention Carrasco, about whom they made a suggestive clarification on Saturday: “she is in good health.”
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