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

Yunior García Aguilera with a police officer behind him. (Screen capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 12 November 2021 — Cuban State Security has warned Yunior García Aguilera that it will not allow him to march alone on Sunday the 14th, as he announced this Thursday that he plans to do. The political police again summoned the playwright this Thursday to threaten him with details of his arrest, including that he will go to the Combinado del Este, the largest prison in Cuba and where the opponent Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is also being held.

García Aguilera was interviewed by telephone by the US channel CNN in Spanish where he made the regime’s position very clear. “Our sentences have already been signed. They even told me which jail I am going to go to, they tell me I’m going to Combinado, they have even told me that they will not allow me to leave that Sunday even in the way I have announced it, alone, carrying a white rose, down a central Havana street,” he said.

This Wednesday, the creator of Archipiélago announced that, in view of the threats, with explicit calls for violence, with which the Government confronts the Civic March of 15N, he chose to make an individual walk along the 23 to the Malecón in Havana and It made it clear that the rest of the citizens could choose whatever way they saw fit to show their support for the demonstration, since creative protests had been made. The announcement generated confusion even among the members and supporters of the Archipiélago group, so García Aguilera wanted to explain his intention in greater detail.

“It is not a question of calling off, eliminating or even limiting the right that each Cuban has to conquer that which has been denied us, but rather of finding solutions that would not put their security at risk,” he argued.

“As I made clear in the statement, I would never ask Cubans to renounce their rights,” he said. “We support the 15N (15 November), the 16N, the 17N and every day. Cubans have to act as citizens with rights on the 15N and every day. The only thing we have asked is that no Cuban rise up against another and that there be no violence. We have to act responsibly, make a difference, and advocate for our rights resourcefully. “

The playwright affirmed that he does not ask anyone to go out with him, although there are already those who have adhered to his proposal, which has even had Yahima Díaz as a precursor, who imitated the gesture when she was going yesterday to her appointment with State Security and was held for about six hours.

“I don’t know what is going to happen on Sunday. I am not going to hide, I am not going to hide. I am going to act in a transparent way, I am going to stay at home. That day I will go out on my way. Whatever the authorities do, it is their responsibility. They will know the consequences of acting in an extreme way.”

Archipiélago already has the explicit support of the US, the European Union and the UN, which have promised to supervise the march. On this occasion, unlike what happened on July 11, which was a spontaneous movement, the international community is warned and expectant about what is going to happen.

“I believe that at some point we Cubans must take off all our masks, lose those fears that have always been unfounded in us and face power as citizens,” said the playwright.

Yunior García commented once again that the government has only responded with violence and threats to the peaceful movement of 15N. “There are testimonies from police officers that they are preparing them to repress much stronger than on July 11. Photos have appeared on social networks in workplaces with sticks, and sometimes even with nails in the tips, with which they supposedly want to beat to the protesters. We do not want a drop of blood to be spilled,” he asked.

“We are living a dictatorship. It has become clear that there is no democracy, not even that so-called socialist democracy that they proclaim, that there is not even the rule of law and there is not even a Republic. (Miguel) Díaz-Canel himself has publicly said that in Cuba there is no division of powers and it is not just that I who says it, it is that they have demonstrated it,” said the activist, who also appreciated that in more than 100 cities where there is freedom they will accompany the marches.

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