Cuban Police Committed to Supporting Acts of Repudiation Against Artists

Poster painted by Katherine Bisquet and Camila Lobón using makeup. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 15 December 2020 — State Security continues its harassment against activists and artists who were housed at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement. One day after Carlos Manuel Álvarez was arrested when he left his family’s house in Cárdenas, Matanzas, and was interrogated for six hours, Katherine Bisquet denounced the organization of an act of repudiation in front of her house, in Centro Habana.

The writer published through her social networks that microphones and speakers blasting music were placed near her house.

“The hate messages are already beginning. And the furious crowd is arriving!! But there are still people blowing kisses at us,” said Bisquet. “For each mercenary, one village,” the crowd can be heard shouting in a video uploaded to social networks.

“They tore the poster from us and a patrol has just arrived,” they charged. On the bedsheet that served as the poster, a message written in makeup read: “13 days of illegal deprivation of liberty. We have the right to express ourselves freely”

Hours earlier, she and visual artist Camila Ramírez Lobón had hung a white sheet from the roof protesting about the time they were under police surveillance, not allowed to go out. “A patrol just arrived and tore the poster from us,” they complained. On the bedsheet that served as the poster, a message written in makeup read: “13 days of illegal deprivation of liberty. We have the right to express ourselves freely.”

“Every lipstick, every eyeliner, mascara and glitter fill in these letters. And these letters carry our wishes for freedom,” Bisquet said in her post.

For her part, Ramírez Lobón said that during the act one could hear “Moneda Dura, Moncada, Carlos Puebla, Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Sara González, fragments of recorded speeches by Fidel” and that, from time to time, a neighbor would broadcast Bonifacio Byrne, or shout “the usual: worms, shameless, mercenaries.”

Act of repudiation on the corner in front of Katherine Bisquet’s house. (Facebook)

In the morning, a teenager, Osmel Adrián Rubio Santos, one of the strikers who was stationed in San Isidro last November to demand the release of Denis Solís, was detained when he left his home “to buy bread.” Rubio’s mother denounced him in a live broadcast while her son was put in a police car in handcuffs.

The 14 artists and activists who staged that peaceful protest at the headquarters of the group have been under surveillance and besieged at their homes by State Security and the Police for more than two weeks. Some, like Adrián Rubio or Iliana Hernández, have been the victims of acts of repudiation in their homes.

Hernández, a reporter for the CiberCuba news portal, was arrested this Tuesday when she left her home. According to her, her intention was to go to the Spanish Consulate for an interview. During the arrest, which was broadcast live on Facebook, the officers tried to take her phone from her, but she managed to get it to her mother beforehand.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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