“Look! Look how the people support us! You say that the people condemn us…look how the people support us.” This is what Zuleidys Perez Velasquez repeated on Monday, August 5th to the members of the State (In)Security when the bus that carried 14 detained opponents passed through the center of Holguin.
The opposition leaned their heads out of the windows and yelled “Down with the dictatorship, Down with the Castros, Long live human rights!” and the majority of the people on the sidewalks and streets supported with their cheers, arms and jumps.
Zuledys Perez Velazques, national president of CID (Independent and Democratic Cuba) and a group of activists from various organizations had gone to the provincial offices of State (In)Security in Agramonte street between Area and Libertad in front of the San Jose Park, to protest the abuse against Ramon Zamora Rodriguez and other members of the opposition.
When they arrived, a mob of more than 200 people waited for them with an act of protest. Zuleidys, Danai Mediola Duquesne and Julio Cesar Ramos Curbelo, as representatives of the group, headed to the offices of Stte (In)Security to demand an explanation for the act of protest. Major Eliseo ordered that they could not be there.
Zuleidys responded that they were not going to leave until they were given an explanation of those who the henchman said were people who had gathered on their own accord and that they (State (In)Security) were there to protect the opponents to public disturbance.
She responded that they wouldn’t move until they received an explanation and that she had video and witnesses that it had been he who had taken workers out of La Casona (a business of construction materials and an adjoining bakery) so that they would protest.
Realizing that he’d been discovered, the henchmen Eliseo made a signal to the mob to start up again. The opponents linked arms together. In response to this attitude, he gave orders for the arrests and the men and women were put onto the bus with punches and pushing.
When they arrived to the Center of Operations in Pedernales they were detained for three hours in the summer sun inside the metal bus. Later they were let off one by one to be interrogated. They were put into very cold and very hot rooms until 9 at night when they began to be released. Julio Cesar was threatened, told that they would go to his house and give him a beating.
They savagely beat Juan Zacarias Verdecia, 63 years old and nearly blind. Zacarias’s mouth is destroyed and his ribs are bruised and he was released 8 kilometers away in the neighborhood of Guirabo. Since he can barely see, he walked for three hours to arrive back to Holguin.
Zuleidys stated that the meeting had been called for all the organizations to come to an agreement to support each other in cases of repression and in reality the agreement was accomplished through action, it was a success that they facilitated with their abuse.
The reuinion was celebrated in the house of Ramon Zamora Rodrigues, representative of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Front for Civic Resistence. Before all the opponents arrived the dictator had assembled an act of protest and the henchmen took several out of the house by force, among them Zamora, and terrorized the women and children.
The 43 opponents detained on Monday, August 5th, 2013 in Holguin were:
Zuleidy Lisbet Pérez Velázquez
Carmen Oropesa Ramírez
Rosa María Naranjo Nieves
Danai Mendiola Duquesne
Yolanda Pérez Días
Marisol Pupo Rodríguez
Damaris García Martínez
Berta Guerrero Segura
Magdelivia Pelegrino Guerrero
Liliana Campos Bruzón
Livia Hernández Pérez
Maidolis Leiva Portelles
Julio Cesar Ramos Curbelo
Alexander Marrero De La Rosa
Alexei Jiménez Almarales
Jorge Luis Recio Arias
Emir José Bermúdez Pérez
Julio Cesar Albares Marrero
Luis Jaime Meriño
Mauricio Martínez Días
José Luis Ricardo Soberats
Yuri Miguel Carralero Vázquez
Bernardo Cintero Gonzales
Gilberto Solí Gonzales
Ramón Zamora Rodríguez
Maylin Ricardo Góngora
Pedro Leiva Góngora
Juan Sacaría Verdecía
Rafael Leyva Leyva
José Isidoro Urbino Zaldívar
Mairin Pozo De La Torre
Yosbanis Pupo Pérez
Fidel García Roldan
Franklin Pelegrino Del Toro
Rubier Cruz Campo
Yolangel Pupo Pérez
Ricardo Rodríguez Feria
Amauri Güero Mora
Roberto Gonzales Hernández
Eladio Pupo Nieves
Arlenis Rodríguez Ávila
José Luis Mir Cruz
Amilkar Pérez Riverón
7 August 2013