14ymedio, Havana, 12 August 2022 — Angélica Garrido suffered a stroke that paralyzed “the right side of her face,” confirmed the Cuban activist’s husband, Luis Rodríguez Pérez, speaking to 14ymedio after visiting her this Friday at the hospital to find out about her state of health. “Angelica felt some sensation on the right side of her shoulder” as well as “in her mouth and eye,” he detailed.
Garrido, who was sentenced to three years in prison for her participation in the protests on July 11, 2021, let her husband know that her “principles are firm even if her body is not.”
Rodríguez believes that the possibility of parole in Garrido’s case is being hindered by State Security, which “is attacking all the time,” looking for reasons to prevent his wife from leaving prison.
Although Rodríguez did not rule out that this is a ruse, and the intimidating act towards Angélica are due to the demonstration that he led in the Havana Cathedral a few days ago together with several relatives of 11J prisoners. “It could also be that they are going to release her and then they are increasing the repression to keep it as calm as possible, anything, but the repression against her has really intensified. They are playing with her hopes.”
Angélica Garrido and her sister, the writer María Cristina, had their sentences of three and nine years, respectively, ratified in June, after the appeal hearing held in the Provincial Court of Mayabeque.
Prior to this Friday’s visit, Rodríguez uploaded a message to his Facebook account in which he made his love for Angélica known. “Hate dictated about you, three years in prison; I, inevitably, am imprisoned in you, to life in prison. Here we are, gorgeous. The children are gorgeous. I don’t care, my girl, I don’t care if tomorrow when I hug you hug me with one arm.”
Rodríguez explained that it was a foreign doctor who gave Angélica the first diagnosis and that at the Calixto García hospital in Havana, where she was taken, they confirmed her condition. This Saturday, he indicated, he will contact her to find out her progress after the antibiotics they are giving her.
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