14ymedio, Havana, 9 August 2023 — The name of Yunisleydis Rillos Pao became popular on Tuesday after her complaint on social networks against Cuban State Security for having summoned her daughter, Leadi Katalaya Naranjo Rillos, three years old, to the police station of El Capri, in Havana. The situation was, according to the agent who finally attended her, “a mistake,” since the summons was for her.
“He explained to me that it was a mistake. ’Apologies, apologies, apologies,’ that’s all he said,” Rillos Pao recounted in a video shared on X (formerly Twitter) to relate her exchange with the State Security agent, identified as Robert. She is the wife of Idael Naranjo and the sister of Yerandis Rillos, who were convicted for their participation in the 11 July 2021 [11J] protests in Cuba.
“The officer delivered the summons to my mother-in-law’s house, and she told him that Leadi was a three-year-old girl and he should reconsider and return to his unit,” says Rillos Pao, who maintains that the agent himself should have pointed out to his superiors that there was an error. She posted an image of the document on social networks the previous day, and the name of the minor appeared unequivocally, but in the space for specifying the reason for the summons, only the indicated time appeared.
Rillos Pao went at 2:30 in the afternoon, as indicated on the summons, on behalf of her daughter, and there, she says, the agent corrected himself and told her that the summons was actually for her, in order to offer her “help” as a relative of the two people in prison. “If you have problems with your prisoners, you call us and then we can help you,” he said.
“The only thing I want is the freedom of my political prisoners, I don’t want anything else,” she says in her message. “It’s the only thing I need, because in two years you haven’t given help of any kind. On the contrary, what you have done is repress us, that is the only thing you have done,” reproaches Rillos Pao.
In the images, the woman thanks those who sympathized with the situation and helped by sharing the news. “The only thing I want to communicate to the whole world and to mothers is that we must fight and not shut up, because they look at the result. It’s a battle we’ve overcome because we haven’t kept quiet. We can’t be afraid. Now we can’t be complacent and must and always be alert, because with them [State Security] you never know.”
According to Martí Noticias, Yunisleydis’ mother, Ania Pao Marín, was also cited, although no details have been revealed.
After the protests of July 11, 2021, numerous relatives of those convicted for demonstrating have denounced the persecution, harassment, police sieges and arrests, sometimes just for demanding freedom for their loved ones.
As of mid-June, the organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) counted 1,037 political prisoners in Cuba. In its report, the NGO, based in Madrid, highlighted 35 from the list who are under 18 years old, and 22 who have completed their sentences.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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