Translating Cuba

“Wake up!” Says Pablo Milanes to the Mobs that Serve the Cuban Regime

Cuban singer-songwriter and guitarist Pablo Milanés offered a message of support for the protests called by 15N. (EFE)

14ymedio, Havana, 15 November 2021 — “It is a beautiful thing that we coincide in showing our claim for absolute freedoms through flowers”, wrote singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés in a message in support of the protests called for this Monday throughout Cuba. Like the author of Yolanda and Yo no te Pido, dozens of Cuban and foreign artists have expressed their support for the Civic March for Change on November 15^th.

“My contempt for those mobs that they use to ‘represent the best of the people’ “Milanés said when expressing his support for Yunior García Aguilera and all the Cubans he represents and who fight inside and outside of Cuba”.

The troubadour also shared the lyrics of his song Flowers of the Future, along with a video performing the song at a concert in Alicante (Spain), on November 11^th. Among the song’s verses is: “Not everything is dead / there is someone awake / who will be thinking / for you and for him”.

“All eyes are on our Cuban brothers, Ojos Sobre Cuba” From Miami, Rosa María Payá asked, after the Cuban Government denied landing authorization for a flight to Cuba on Monday morning in which, in addition to the activist, MEP Hermann Tertsch and influencer Alexander Otaola would travel to support the demonstrations. “Today, the regime could prevent it, but the reunification of our nation is unstoppable, because the people, both inside and outside Cuba are determined to recover the Homeland and Life”, Payá wrote on her social networks. continue reading

I am ashamed that people of my race lend themselves to be like the ancient hunters of savages in their own torture and pain. They are using them

Yotuel Romero, one of the interpreters of the theme Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life), wrote: “On November 15^th, history will definitely change for our suffering people”. Alexander Delgado, from the duo Gente de Zona and also a participant in the song Patria y Vida that has become the anthem of the protests in Cuba, condemned the acts of repudiation against opponents who have made public their intention to participate in the civic protest. “The reality is that the demonstration is a worldwide right,” he said.

“Today is another day that this dictatorship is more despised,” Yomil Hidalgo wrote on his social networks this Sunday, a message that he accompanied with a photo of a silhouette of the Island of Cuba made with white roses. “It is very difficult to live being kidnapped and repudiated for thinking differently, enough injustices already, Cuba belongs to no one or a few, it belongs to all Cubans”, added the reggaeton artist who lives in Havana and asked for freedom “for our people”.

Another musician of the urban genre who presented himself was the Puerto Rican Don Omar: “I go to my Cuban brothers, I bet on the freedom and justice they need so much. They have innocently died in search of respect for the rights of others, which has always been peace”. In other messages supporting the protests, he has used the tags 15N #, #somosmasynotenemosmiedo (there are more of us and we are not afraid) and #patriayvida.

In addition, the clarinetist, saxophonist and composer Paquito D’Rivera directed a “salute of solidarity” to all Cubans who are going to participate in the 15N march “for Cuba’s final freedom”, which has been “prey to totalitarianism for over 60 years”.

On the other hand, clarinetist, saxophonist and composer Paquito D’Rivera directed a “salute of solidarity” to all Cubans who are going to participate in the 15N march “for Cuba’s final freedom”

In a transmission on social networks during a demonstration in support of 15N in Miami this Sunday, trumpeter and pianist Arturo Sandoval, together with Cuban-born actor Andy García, vowed “to support the cause of Cuba’s freedom”.

“Very soon it will be 63 years of that shameful dictatorship of Cuba. It is too much. I believe that these people need freedom, they need to breathe, they need to know what freedom is,” Sandoval said. On November 15^th, he affirmed that it was a day that all Cubans looked forward to with “great anxiety”.

“This is the time to tell the Cuban people that we are with them,” García said, emphasizing: “That repressive dictatorship that exists in Cuba can no longer be allowed”.

“Cuba’s youth, in which I believe a lot, will be able to show the world what it is to live in freedom and democracy and they will be able to teach the triumph of what a new Cuba is”, musician Emilio Estefan said for his part. His wife, singer Gloria Estefan, also expressed her support for 15N, noting that Cubans “will raise their voices peacefully as they did on July 11^th to express their dissatisfaction with that regime that has oppressed them for over 62 years”.

Actor William Levy asked that all eyes in the world be on Cuba. “Let the whole world see what happens. We need all your support to end this dictatorship,” he wrote on Instagram. “One day I left Cuba, but Cuba never left me,” he said in another message.

“Very soon it will be 63 years of that shameful dictatorship of Cuba. It is too much. I believe that these people need freedom, they need to breathe, they need to know what freedom is”

Panamanian singer-songwriter Rubén Blades expressed his full support for the Cuban people and their right to self-determination in a video posted this Sunday on his Facebook page. “I believe in the exchange of ideas on its own, I believe in the possibility that a society can determine its path and its destiny, so, based on that, I am with the people of Cuba, as I have always been”, said the musician.

“In the case of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, we support, as always, those who demand freedom to express their thoughts, the right to vote, and we condemn the government’s repression of their dictatorships,” he added.

On November 10^th, a group of former leftist presidents, artists and writers who support Cuba’s regime, signed a letter published by the official Cubadebate media in which they blamed the United States for any demonstration against the Government of Cuba. They also asked that the United States “stop its attempts to destabilize a nation that at no time has taken action against US security”. Among the signatories are journalist Ignacio Ramonet, writers Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Martín Almada, and musician Chico Buarque.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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A Latin Grammy Award for ‘Patria y Vida’, the Anthem of the Protests in Cuba

“Patria y Vida” performers during a call with Maykel Osorbo. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, November 18, 2021–Thursday, the song Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life] won the award for Best Urban Song at the Latin Grammys, in Las Vegas, USA. Beatriz Luengo, singer and wife of Cuban Yotuel Romero, one of the songwriters, went up on stage to receive the award.

Sung by duo Gente de Zona, Yotuel and Descemer Bueno, who live outside of Cuba, and Maykel Castillo Osorbo and El Funky, inside the Island, the song is, primarily, an homage to Movimiento San Isidro (MSI) [San Isidro Movement] and has become an anthem for the protests of thousands of Cubans who went out into the streets on July 11th to demand “libertad” [freedom] for Cuba.

Patria y Vida will be heard during the main ceremony, from the mouths of its creators. Except for Maykel Osorbo, for whom today marks six months in prison, all of the song’s participants will be on stage. In the song’s video, appearing alongside Osorbo, hugging a Cuban flag, is artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, MSI leader, who has also been in prison since July 11. continue reading

Moments before the ceremony, El Funky shared on social media that they’d been able to speak with Osorbo and, from jail, he was able to share a few words. “We were able to speak with Maykel Osorbo and feel his voice in these very significant moments, he made it clear that the Grammy is for the Cuban people, whether we win or not, we’ve come so far.”

In statements to 14ymedio at the beginning of the year after the video came out, Otero Alcántara said the most important thing about that act was to “call attention to society, the Black people of San Isidro, the Black people of Cerro, those who stand in line.” In his opinion, the audiovisual “helps create that project of a country, one those people can identify with, feel included.”

Since its debut on YouTube this past February 16th, the song broke viewership records and it currently has more than nine million views on that platform.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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Cuban Government Releases Daniela Rojo, But Arrests a Child Under 15 at School

Reniel Rodríguez was taken out of class this Wednesday and driven away in a police vehicle. (Twitter)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 November 2021 — Daniela Rojo was released this Wednesday, as confirmed by the activist herself by telephone to 14ymedio in a brief conversation.

The young woman, moderator of the Archipiélago platform and architect of the initiative for the 15N (15 November) Civic March for Change in Guabanacoa, had been missing for five days and the group to which she belongs had filed a writ of habeas corpus hours before to demand knowledge of her situation before the Criminal Chamber of the Court Provincial of Havana. During the July 11 protests, Rojo had already been detained for a month.

In the text, the refusal of the Police to provide the place of her detention was highlighted and that she had not been able to communicate with her relatives. “She is not registered as a detainee in any arrest record of the Police units that have been called to find out her whereabouts.”

Archipiélago also indicates that Rojo is not the perpetrator of “any crime” and that there was no “complaint against her, nor arrest warrant.” In addition, the platform indicated that her physical and mental health was unknown, and that her personal integrity was in danger “by not having any legal security.”

After her release, the activist Mag Jorge Castro celebrated the fact on Twitter and invited people to continue to demand continue reading

the same resolution for other cases. “Daniela Rojo is free and with her two little ones … the pressure works, now we go for the others … there are hundreds left.”

However, a few minutes later he himself reported the arrest of Reniel Rodríguez. The 15-year-old activist, who runs the Lunatico Debates channel and is the founder of Alianza Juvenil Libertaria (ALJ) (Youth Freedom Alliance), was apparently taken to a Investigation Center in Matanzas.

According to his account, the boy was notified around 11:00 in the morning by a teacher from his school, who asked him to accompany him. They then put him in a police car. “As of now he has not been released. He is only 15 years old, he is a child who will be branded for life, you cowards!” the activist wrote.

The ALJ reported at midnight its leader’s apparent situation via Twitter. “Our colleague, Reniel, is in the EFI (Comprehensive Training School). These centers are run by the Ministry of the Interior, where a complete indoctrination and behavior change for young people is ensured. His head was shaved and he only has access to one call,” they wrote.

This Thursday, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), based in Madrid, offered a public accounting according to which there were “more than 400 repressive actions” on the island during the last week.

Among them, as of Friday, about 120 house arrests with police surveillance, 62 summons to police stations, 50 acts of threats and almost 90 arrests, as well as 14 acts of repudiation and 35 cuts to Internet services are calculated.

The organization has highlighted in a statement the importance of focusing attention on “the victims of the regime,” and demands the release of all those who have been detained for “exercising the rights to freedom of expression and demonstration.”

The Observatory has asked the European Union that the actions of the Government, led by Miguel Díaz-Canel, have “political consequences… Let us reiterate our call to activate the mechanisms contemplated in the EU’s Political Dialogue Agreement with Cuba,” hit demands.

In addition to the arrests related to the 15N, the NGO Cubalex, a legal information center, reviewed this Wednesday the situation of the detainees as a result of the protests of the 11J, which stood at 1,271. Of these, at least 659 are still in prison, 42 have been convicted in summary trials and 8 in ordinary trials.

For 269 more people, according to the report, there are requests for prison sentences ranging from one to 30 years. Cubalex considers of particular concern “the use of the figure of sedition to impose exemplary sanctions on at least 122 people.”

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Cuban Lady in White Sentenced to Six Years in Prison for Participating in the 11J (11 July) Protests

Abascal is also a member of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 November 2021 — The Lady in White Sissi Abascal Zamora was sentenced this Thursday to six years in prison for her participation in the protests on July 11 (11J) on the island. Abascal, who is also a member of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy, was accused of the alleged crimes of contempt, attack and public disorder.

As reported to Radio Televisión Martí by Armando Abascal, her father, the Municipal Court of Jovellanos, in Matanzas, ratified the sentence requested by the Prosecutor’s Office in the trial of November 3 after her participation in the protests that took place in the town of Carlos Rojas. In addition, her father explained, an appeal was filed against the sentence and it will take ten business days for the decision to be known.

The former political prisoner also said that after the first ten days of the trial, his daughter, who is now in home confinement, must be transferred to the Matanzas women’s prison and wait behind bars for “the resolution of the appeal.”

The mother of the 23-year-old activist, Lady in White Zamora Annia, told Diario de Cuba that her daughter was accused by major Silvia Martínez Montero, the political police for Jovellanos. “The trial was rigged. The three lawyers who worked that day made a very good defense, but it is sad that this work is not enough. It is a single power and the Prosecutor’s Office manipulates everything. Sissi was defended by a lawyer from Jovellanos, whose name is Vladimir, but their hands are tied,” he said.

Zamora also denounced that on July 11 his daughter was beaten by several civilian-clad law enforcement officers in front of the continue reading

Carlos Rojas police station when they tried to find out where the government opponent Armando Abascal was being detained.

“The protest had already ended, everyone had withdrawn, my daughters Lisi Abascal, Sissi Abascal and I remained,” he said. “Then a bus arrived full of women in civilian clothes, between 30 and 40, who attacked us horribly. We suffered injuries, my daughter Lisi was hit on the head with a bottle and she had to receive stitches.”

After learning of the six-year sentence for Sissi Abascal Zamora, Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, asked on her social networks: “Where are the henchmen who beat her?” “In Cuba there are no laws that protect you, much less justice. Freedom and justice for Sissi and all Cuban political prisoners without exclusion,” she demanded.

According to the prosecution’s accusation, Sissi Abascal Zamora during the protests shouted phrases such as: “homeland and life,” “down with the Castros” and “down with the Revolution,” and “she asked the local residents to join her.”

The Prosecutor’s Office also argued that the young woman placed a white sheet on the branch of a tree in the park that read “homeland and life,” while the protesters shouted “phrases against the revolutionary process” and expressions such as “henchmen, murderers, fucking police,” and also “banging on pots and pans with sticks.”

The NGO Cubalex, a legal information center, has documented 1,271 detainees as a result of the spontaneous demonstrations of 11J. Of these, at least 659 are still in prison, and, according to a recent report, 42 have been convicted in summary trials and eight in ordinary trials have been verified.

Cubalex considers of particular concern “the use of the figure of sedition to impose exemplary sanctions on at least 122 people,” with prosecution requests of up to 30 years in prison.

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Eusebio Leal Takes Possession of the Plaza de Armas in Havana

Local passersby taking photos next to the statue of Eusebio Leal, recently inaugurated in Old Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 17 November 2021 — The brand new statue of Eusebio Leal, inaugurated with pomp this Monday in front of the Museum of the City, the former palace of the Captains General in Old Havana, by the president-designate himself, Miguel Díaz-Canel, is only approached by national tourists, who are the only ones that recognize the historian of the Cuban capital rendered in bronze.

The gesture of the sculpture, the work of José Villa Soberón and Gabriel Cisneros Báez, which represents the deceased historian in life size, walking with documents in hand and “step alive,” as described by the official press, lends itself to passersby leaning on him and take selfies. He also begins to be the target of jokes and memes.

Leal became known at the national level through a program that Cuban official television broadcast for years under the title of Andar La Habana (Walk Havana), a phrase that has now become popular slang to describe the daily hustle and bustle in search of basic products that many times takes city residents from one municipality to another. continue reading

The place where the figure has been placed could not be more significant. Leal extensively described the wooden street located in front of the palace, the Plaza de Armas, which stands before the door of the building, and El Templete which, a few meters away, marks the founding site of the Villa de San Cristóbal de La Habana 502 years ago.

But above all, because Leal was always a great admirer of European royal houses. When King Juan Carlos I visited the Island in 1999, to participate in the Ibero-American Summit, the historian guided him to the throne that the Spanish royal settlements had been waiting for five centuries, but the monarch declined to sit.

Years before, in a select group of friends, Leal had summed up his admiration for power in one sentence: “I am a monarchist and Fidel is my king,” a premise that he followed all his life, in which he enjoyed official privileges but also had to fight against bureaucracy and prohibitions to promote the restoration process in the historic center of the city.

In addition to his political predilections, this Wednesday there were not many who took a photo with the recently inaugurated statue and most of those who did so were Cubans, before the curious gaze of the tourists who, with self-confidence and without a mask, strolled through the place. Attentive to every cell phone that came out of a pocket were the plainclothes police, fearful that some activist would come to the sculpture to make a sovereign rudeness.

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More than 650 Detainees from the July 11 (11J) Protests in Cuba Are Still in Prison

The moderator of the Archipelago platform, Daniela Rojo, has been missing for the fifth day. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2021 — Daniela Rojo, mother of two young children and moderator of the Archipiélago platform, architect of the initiative for the 15N (15 November), is missing for the fifth day. The young woman was already been detained for almost a month for participating in the protests on July 11.

“The Istanbul Protocol (UN, 2004) strictly prohibits the confinement of women in unofficial or secret places of detention, and warns that in these circumstances, women could suffer sexual and other abuses,” recalls the legal advisory NGO Cubalex, which this Wednesday issued a statement on the networks updating the situation of the prisoners of that day.

Along with Rojo, Lázaro Lamelas Ortiz and Pedro Lago Segura remain unaccounted for, reported the group, which denounces that both the young woman and Osmel González and Pedro Albert Sánchez had their Facebook profiles removed. continue reading

To date, the organization has documented 1,271 detainees as a result of the spontaneous demonstrations of July 11. Of them, at least 659 are still in prison, and, according to their text, it has verified 42 convicted in summary trials and 8 in ordinary trials.

Of 269 more people, the report continues, the prosecutor’s request is already known, ranging from a single year to 30 years in prison. Cubalex considers of particular concern “the use of the figure of sedition to impose exemplary sanctions on at least 122 people.”

To get an idea of the numbers of political convicts, the NGO recalls that before July 11, Cuban Prisoners Defenders registered 152.

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Yunior Garcia: ‘Now the Important Thing is Those Who are Detained Inside Cuba’

This Thursday, García Aguilera will make statements that will reveal the state of terror that exists in Cuba: “I am going to tell everything. It is going to be a very important day.” (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2021 — Leaving Cuba was a “personal” decision that Yunior García Aguilera made at the end of the day on Sunday, November 14, he said this Wednesday. Traveling to Spain was “the only way he had” so that he would not be silenced and thus avoid being annulled by the regime, he said in a conversation with the filmmaker Ián Padrón through his program Right to Reply.

The coordinator of the Archipiélago platform said that his departure has been “celebrated as a victory for” the Government, but what it really won was “the terror that they have implanted. One has to wonder how long that terror can win.” The conversation from Madrid takes place two days after the scheduled day for the Civic March for Change in Cuba on November 15, an initiative that the regime managed to prevent through a coup of repression.

The activist reported that he went to the Spanish Embassy “to request a visa” in expectation of being detained, and thus having the option of leaving the country. “If my only weapon has always been the word, I had to find a way to defend that word.”

He said that a moment before the link with Padrón he had had “a difficult dialogue with the rest of the members of the Archipiélago.” I understand, he acknowledged, that “this is a difficult decision.” continue reading

During the conversation, he also mentioned that since the early hours of Sunday he was harassed at home and admitted that “he was not prepared for it” despite having previously faced violent repression. García revealed that the only person in his building who collaborated and participated in the act of repudiation against him was the president of the CDR [Committee for the Defense of the Revolution], who even offered his apartment so his windows could be covered with Cuban flags. “There were no people from the neighborhood, but there were faces I recognized from the 11J (11 July) team in front of ICRT,” he said, referring to the group that insulted him on that day of protests before he was arrested.

“My family was present, (…) The last few days have perhaps been more difficult than I could have anticipated. When you have a situation of solitary confinement for so long (…) you enter a state where you start to worry not for your life, but for how to face that life with dignity,” he declared.

García Aguilera said that being away from the island does not mean that he is going to renounce his ideas, his principles, his objectives, but he did point out that these are moments that changed his life. “When you experience things that I can only compare to fascism, a rage begins within you that is very difficult to control.”

His aim is to “be useful” and then return to his country, as well as working for the liberation of the Archipiélago activists who were arrested and whose whereabouts are still unknown. “I’m not going to rest until those people are free and safe.” He insists that, although everyone “is waiting for a statement from Yunior,” now “the important thing is those who are detained inside Cuba, who is not allowed to leave their home, who is without internet, who cannot speak.”

He announced that this Thursday he will make statements that will reveal the state of terror that is being experienced in Cuba: “I am going to tell everything. It will be a very important day.”

Yunior is in Spain in the company of his wife Dayana Prieto in a place that he did not want to specify for security reasons for the friends who have provided him with shelter. “We will be here for the next two weeks, in a place on the outskirts of Madrid.” The activist’s objectives remain “intact,” despite the “very hard” moments he has lived through.

University of Havana Plans a ‘Great University Fair’ for the Same Place Yunior Garcia Will March on Sunday

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

Cuba: A Violent Crowd Surrounds Yunior Garcia’s House and Threatens the Foreign Press Black Berets, Red Kerchiefs and Flags to Silence the Cries of Freedom in Cuba Surveillance and Acts of Repudiation Muzzle 15N in Cuba Cuba: Family Member Confirms to ’14ymedio’ that Yunior Garcia and Dayana Prieto Disappeared on Tuesday
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Yunior Garcia Arrives in Spain ‘With Our Ideas Intact’ and Will Soon Speak of His Departure from Cuba

Until a year ago, Yunior García Aguilera was a ‘respectable artist’ according to the Cuban government, which now constantly describes him as a mercenary. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Madrid, 17 November 2021 — “We arrived in Spain, alive, healthy and with our ideas intact.” This is what the Cuban playwright Yunior García Aguilera reported in his first communication since he landed in Madrid this Wednesday, at approximately 2:00 p.m. local time (8:00 a.m. Cuban time) on an Iberia flight, together with his wife, Dayana Prieto. In a post published on Facebook, the activist, one of the leaders of the Archipiélago platform and the main promoter of the 15N (15 November) Civic March for Change, thanks the “many people who have made this trip possible.”

“I have been without communication for several days and I need to update myself on the situation of other members of Archipiélago,” explains García, about whom nothing was known since Sunday, when the security forces prevented him from carrying out his plan to march through the streets of Havana. The playwright also announces that “very soon” he will speak about his “odyssey.”

Archipiélago learned of the news of García Aguilera’s departure from the Europa Press agency, which had the scoop, and reported that it would offer a statement as soon as it had “some first-hand information.”

According to El País, diplomatic sources declared that “discreet arrangements had been made for García’s trip for days, that he had a valid long-term visa to enter Spain,” and that leaving the country is “at his own request,” which has not been confirmed since the playwright has not offered his own explanation.

The same newspaper, based on “sources close to García,” continue reading

says that the “decision” was due to “brutal police pressure suffered in recent weeks.”

A representative of the Cuban government assured in statements to Efe that there has been no agreement between Havana and Madrid to facilitate the dissident’s departure from the country, that the Cuban authorities “have nothing to do” with that departure of García Aguilera and that the activist would have processed the tourist visa on his own.

In order to enter Spain, one of the requirements imposed on all travelers from Cuba – along with those from all areas considered at risk in relation to covid-19 – must present a negative PCR test, carried out within 48 hours, prior to their arrival in Spanish territory. There is no record that, since Sunday, García Aguilera and Prieto left their home for this purpose.

García Aguilera and his wife, Dayana Prieto, slept at home on Monday and went “for a walk” on Tuesday morning, relatives who visited the opponent’s home around midnight that same day told 14ymedio.

The mother of the playwright’s wife, visibly nervous, told this newspaper that it is unlikely that someone would break into the house and that García Aguilera’s plan was not to open the gate at the door of his house to any stranger. What they feared was that during their walk there had been an arrest.

The neighborhood where García Aguilera lives with his family, La Lisa, which was completely militarized between Sunday and Monday, presented total calm last night and, apparently, the surveillance had been lifted.

The Archipiélago platform declared the opponent and his wife missing on Tuesday, after a collaborator repeatedly knocked on the door of their house at around 6:00 in the evening without obtaining a response, and then asked for proof of life. Hours later, he confirmed his concern and urgently demanded proof that the couple was in good condition.
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Cuba: Family Member Confirms to ’14ymedio’ that Yunior Garcia and Dayana Prieto Disappeared on Tuesday

Yunior Garcia Aguila and his wife went for a walk on Tuesday and since then no one has heard anything about them. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 17 November 2021 — Yunior García Aguilera and Dayana Prieto slept at their house on Monday and went out for a walk on Tuesday morning. From that moment on, relatives who visited the opponent’s home near midnight of the same day lost track of the couple, according to family members who spoke to 14ymedio.

The La Lisa neighborhood, where García Aguilera lives with his family was completely militarized between Sunday and Monday, but presented total calm last night and, apparently, the surveillance had been lifted.

The Archipiélago platform declared the opponent and his wife missing after a collaborator repeatedly knocked on the door of their house at around 6:00 in the evening without obtaining a response, and asked for a proof of life. Hours later, and after talking to this newspaper which had also verified the absence of García Aguilera, he confirmed his concern and urgently demanded proof that the couple is in good condition.

This Tuesday also, Archipiélago denounced the disappearance of its moderator, Daniela Rojo, who, they say, has been “kidnapped” by State Security. “An official of those entities, without saying the exact word of the crime they commit (kidnapping), made it known to the family with total impudence, and without communicating where continue reading

they have her. Since then, her accounts on social networks have disappeared,” they say in a statement.

In the text, they specify that Rojo “is a young mother of two children” and is one of the members of the Archipiélago “who has suffered the most harassment and threats.” They note that last week she was summoned to the Department of Attention to Minors of the Ministry of the Interior for an “extensive interrogation” where she received “a veiled threat” related to the well-being of her children.

They also denounced “the arbitrariness and human rights violations” against the young woman, and “the treatment she may be receiving” given that previously after one of the “several arbitrary arrests where she was hooded, subjected to prolonged interrogations and harassment” Rojo, who is one of the Archipiélago moderators, published a video on her networks saying she would not participate in the Civic March for Change in order to have “a life and a future” and from that moment they lost communication with her.

A statement from the Commission to Support the 15N (15 November) protesters facing repression, denounced “the increase in the repressive wave” verified since the day before and during the 15th of November.

“There were despicable acts of repudiation, cutting off communication with the outside through intermittent internet cuts, and also internally because that measure was extended in some cases to fixed phone lines,” they said.

Also, in Camagüey, a mob of people went to the headquarters of the Archdiocese and carried out an act of repudiation this Monday against Father Alberto Reyes, who has demonstrated on many occasions against the Cuban Government. The priest earlier this week published a video in which he claimed to have been warned by the regime that clergy like himself who participated in the march called by Archipiélago were going to be arrested.

The group was accompanied by an official vehicle, according to a video broadcast on social networks, where the repressors are also heard shouting offensive phrases against Father Reyes.

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Cuban Priest Alberto Reyes Will be in the Civic March Despite the Ban

For this reason, the priest Alberto Reyes rejects to back down and indicates that his function is, precisely, to be with the citizens who demand freedom.

14ymedio, Havana, 15 November 2021 — Camagüey priest Alberto Reyes, who has demonstrated on many occasions against the Cuban Government, has released a video in which he claims to have been warned that priests like him who participate in the Civic March for Change called by the Archipelago opposition collective will be arrested.

“They have called from the Office of Religious Affairs to report that they are aware of the intention of Father Ronaldo Montes de Oca, Castor Álvarez Devesa and me to participate in the November 15 demonstration with our people and that they report that if we participate in this demonstration, we are going to be arrested,” he explains, looking at the camera.

For this reason, the priest refuses to back down and indicates that his function is precisely that of being with the citizens who demand freedom. “We are priests to preach the Gospel, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ speaks of freedom, it speaks of justice and it speaks of truth, this is what our people are asking for. If being detained is the price for being consistent with the preaching of the Gospel, so be it,” he accepts.

Reyes confirms that this Monday he will go out to support the 15N (15 Novmber). “God willing, tomorrow [Monday] we will be accompanying our continue reading

people through our streets, which are still imprisoned,” he concludes.

Sources linked to the Catholic Church maintain that the head of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Communist Party of Cuba, Caridad Diego Bello, has said in this regard: “Neither amnesty, nor indulgence. There will be no soft hand with priests or religious who participate in the 15N.”

On November 9 , a group of 15 Catholic priests signed a letter in which they demanded that the Police not beat their own people. “We do not want blood to be shed again,” or “to hear gunshots again,” they added, “that is not the path that will lead us to the Cuba we need and that we all desire.”

The letter, addressed to the National Revolutionary Police, State Security and “all those who in these days have been summoned to repress the citizen march of November 15,” urged that violence be abandoned. “Don’t hit the protesters because both you and they live amidst so much scarcity and misery.”

“When what happened on November 15 is written, there will only be two alternatives: talk about those who were summoned to beat and repress but decided to protect and take care of their compatriots; or tell how you hit your brother and how you repressed the person demanding what many others yearn for,”the text said.

Just two days later, the curia joined the petition more smoothly. “Every Cuban should be able to express and share freely and with respect, their personal opinions, their thoughts or their convictions, even when they disagree with the majority,” said the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba, which spoke of the “increase in a climate of tension and confrontation that is not healthy and does not benefit anyone. “

The Cuban Conference of Religious Men and Women (Concur) spoke in the same direction.

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‘Here, Today, Even the Street Sweeper Belongs to the Political Police’

The authorities have deployed their security forces in the vicinity of San Rafael so that the scenes of popular protests that were seen on July 11 are not repeated this 15N. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, Juan Diego Rodríguez, 15 November 2021 — Havana woke up this Monday with an autumn atmosphere and a wide police operation to prevent the Civic March called for three in the afternoon on November 15 in various parts of the city and the country. The vicinity of the Capitol, Central Park and the Malecón are among the most guarded areas.

On the Boulevard of San Rafael Street, a pedestrian path that connects the Centro Habana municipality with Old Havana, the presence of uniformed police officers and members of the State Security even outnumber the passers-by. “Here even the street sweeper is part of the political police today,” a customer who waits to shop at one of the hard currency stores located on that street ironizes.

Inside the store, the employees are not happy. They must remain guarding the premises until midnight but they have not been guaranteed a lunch or a snack despite the extension of working hours. The looks are uncomfortable but they avoid complaining out loud.

The police operation in the area has also scared off customers, who form a small line, something rare for a Monday. In the middle of the morning, a burly man dressed as a policeman calls out to others and they have a brief continue reading

meeting in a corner. Give directions, reiterate what needs to be done, and speak in short, authoritative sentences. He looks like a military man addressing his soldiers.

Many people all dressed in civilian clothes attend the rally to receive instructions on policing the Boulevard. There are apparent couples, elderly people that until a few minutes before anyone would have mistaken for a retiree walking down the street, and several men who repeat the pattern of short hair, a tight shirt and a watchful gaze that identifies the security force members in Cuba.

Shortly before, a man who was standing on the corner of the block had been called by a police officer who asked him why he was there. The gentleman was also waiting to enter the hard currency store but he moved away a bit to smoke. His identity card was checked and noted.

The tension is palpable in the air and it is evident that the authorities have deployed their security forces so that the scenes of popular protests that were seen by San Rafael on July 11 are not repeated in the place. Nor the scene of a lonely man with a placard like the one that Luis Robles starred in last December on that same road.

A young man passing by is followed by an old man who has seen him take out his mobile just as the meeting was taking place. He walks behind him for several blocks, until he reaches Reina Avenue, where he manages to lose track of him. “I was only able to make a phone call when I was in the middle of the street with cars passing on both sides,” he explains to this newspaper.

“I had to take refuge in the house of an aunt who lives nearby because they were following me, I’ve never felt like this in my own city,” he details. “They are using many old men for the operation, old men and women.”

In every street, in front of every shop and every bank, the siege is repeated. The informal vendors that are so abundant on Galiano, Reina and Monte avenues seem to have smelled danger and this Monday they are not there or are taking refuge inside the stairs and the thresholds of some doors.

“I went out to buy bread and there were very strange people in line at the bakery who are not from this neighborhood,” says María Eugenia, a retired resident of Los Sitio. “When I got to the counter I asked the employee to sell me an extra bread and I was going to pay her well, but she just looked at the line and said: Grandma, I can’t today.”

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The Humiliating ‘Victory’ of the Cuban Dictatorship

Government supporters during the act of repudiation against the home of Yunior García Aguilera this Sunday. (EFE)

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 16 November 2021 — From the failed assault on the Moncada barracks in 1953 until the ’Tarea Ordenamiento’* [Ordering Task] debacle, defeat has been a constant in the history of what has come to be called the Cuban Revolution. The intention to industrialize the country, the claim to “liberate” Latin America, the 10 Million Ton Harvest, the Food Plan, business improvement, the Granada disaster and the dismantling of the Wasp Network would be enough to affirm that the victories have been scarce.

At a price that no one will be able to calculate until the secret documents of the Ministry of the Interior are declassified, the repression to prevent the Civic March for Change called by the Archipiélago group has been effective only because the streets were kept empty by a blow of terror. This required the mobilization of thousands of troops throughout the country, as well as making hundreds of vehicles available and countless expenditures in logistics.

More than the disproportionate disbursement of public coffers to instill fear in an unarmed population, it will be necessary to assess how much was spent on political capital, how much international trust was squandered, how much disappointment in their own bases will have been provoked by this nonsense of using force against those who just wanted to walk through the streets. The streets of their own country.

No matter how abject the people who volunteered to participate in the repudiation rallies against the organizers of the march, the dirt that has remained on their consciences will grow with time. When their offspring see on social media the vulgarity, abuse, brutal intolerance with which their parents or grandparents angrily insulted decent citizens, they will have no way of explaining to their children or grandchildren that they were doing the right thing. continue reading

If that is the peace that has been proclaimed by the one who holds the title of “President of the Republic,” if that is the type of dialogue that he has claimed to be willing to promote, then it is he who provokes the confrontation and the desire to tell him: “Save yourself those proposals, we do not understand each other.”

This one of 15 November 2021 will be a bitter “victory” to remember, it will be swept under the carpet, as happened with the repudiation rallies of 1980 that do not appear in any glorious anniversary of those displayed by officialdom, and whose participation as a perpetrator no one proudly notes in their autobiography.

They should be ashamed.

*Translator’s note: Tarea ordenamiento = The [so-called] ‘Ordering Task’ which is a collection of measures that includes eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and others.

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Surveillance and Acts of Repudiation Muzzle 15N in Cuba

Yunior García Aguilera showing his hand with a white rose through the window. (EFE)

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 16 November 2021 –The streets almost empty and tension in the air. This is how Havana experienced this Monday, a day in which independent groups had called for a Civic March for the freedom of political prisoners and a democratic change on the island. In the same avenues and shops that two days before were full of people, on this November 15 (15N), there were only uniformed or plainclothes police.

The day before, the playwright Yunior García Aguilera – one of the main organizers of the peaceful protest – had been locked in his house with the official mobs shouting in front of his door. Despite preventing him from leaving his home, the repressors could not prevent the activist from gifting the history of Cuba with image of a powerful civic spirit: a man imprisoned in his own home, putting his hand out of the window with a white rose.

The excessive police and repressive deployment that the Cuban regime has unleashed has not only affected those who, this Monday, were victims of acts of repudiation, suffered the cut off of internet access service, or were arrested while trying to go out on the street. The main cost has gone to the account of the authorities themselves, who have shown their ugliest face to a citizenry tired of the excessive controls that have increased significantly after the protests of July 11. continue reading

Maintaining this state of terror for a long time is almost impossible for the Plaza of the Revolution

In the streets, displeasure and indignation grow at the disproportion of forces between the unarmed citizens and the official forces ready to “face any action,” as president Miguel Díaz-Canel warned last Friday. Anger grows and, although fear still grips many throats, Castroism loses more followers every day among the relatives, neighbors and friends of those who are repressed.

Maintaining this state of terror for a long time is almost impossible for the Plaza of the Revolution. Although the leaders of the Communist Party have the desire to prolong, for months, the surveillance on every corner, the squads of political police lurking in front of the houses of the dissidents and the vociferous rallies of hatred around the houses of the activists, they lack the resources to do all this. This system got used to buying loyalties, even if it was with crumbs and there are no crumbs left.

The country is bankrupt and the people are fed up. Neither the economic crisis nor the popular unrest can be reversed in the short or medium term. Although this 15N they have managed to stifle the Civic March by appealing to the old methods of intimidation, in the air-conditioned offices of power in Cuba they already know that they cannot govern this way for long. They know that they lost the path to reach the heart of the people; they know that fear changed sides on this Island and now they are the ones who fear.

________________________

This text was originally published on the Deutsche Welle website for Latin America.

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How Repression Unfolded in Cuba on November 14th / Cubalex

Image representing José Martí with a white rose.

Cubalex, 15 November 2021 — Cubalex summarized the 48 acts of harassment against civil society we’ve monitored since yesterday, November 14th.

At the end of each day, we will be publishing similar reports. We request your help in sharing. Let’s show the repressive essence of the Cuban regime.

Havana

La Lisa

1. Yunior García Aguilera denounced that his home was surrounded by agents dressed as civilians who violently expelled a crew of journalists that arrived to try to interview him. The mob performed an act of repudiation in front of his house.

Habana del Este (East Havana)

2. Under siege in her house Yoani Licea Gómez, one of the signers of the application to the march on 15N [that was submitted to the authorities and rejected].

Marianao

3. The internet was cut off for Rafael Santos Regalado and his family members and his house is surrounded by patrol cars.

Playa

4. Yeniley Perdomo Sao received a police summons and state agents established a surveillance operation at the home of Abu Duyanah Tamayo. continue reading

5.María Esther Lemus summoned to an interrogation and subjected to threats and degrading treatment.

Cotorro

6. Miryorly García denounced a surveillance operation at her home and later an attempted repudiation meeting.

Regla

7. Diosdado Verdecia denounced a surveillance operation.

San Miguel del Padrón

8. Ever Zamora Hernández received a San Miguel del Padrón police summons.

Havana

8. Under house arrest Maykel González.

Central Havana

9. Edel Carrero is under house arrest.

Boyeros

10. Detained José Díaz Silva and Lourdes Esquivel.

Revolution Plaza

11. Two young people were detained in Quijote Park.

12. State agents prevented the movement and established surveillance operations at the homes of Oscar Casanella, Boris González Arenas, Abraham Jiménez Enoa and Luz Escobar, who was threatened by a State Security agent when she filmed him.

Arroyo Naranjo

13. Yolanda Santana Ayala is assumed to be “disappeared”.

Cerro

14. Carolina Sansón denounced a surveillance operation.

La Lisa

15. Under surveillance in his home Pablo Enrique Delgado Hernández.

Other relevant information

16. All week Camila Acosta, Ileana Hernández and Carolina Barrero denounced surveillance operations at their residences.

17. Militarization: The presence of Rapid Response Brigades and military trucks are reported along the malecón.

18. The office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee tells priests Rolando Montes de Oca, Castor Álvarez and Alberto Reyes that if they participate in tomorrow’s protests they will be detained.

Granma

Bayamo

19. Doctor Alexander Jesús Figueredo denounced surveillance operations in his usual places of residence.

20. Lieutenant Colonel Oriel verbally summoned Yunior Berges to an interrogation. He is under surveillance in his home.

Manzanillo

21. Yander Serra was summoned by police. As he was walking, they detained him and took him to the police station and fined him 3,000 pesos because supposedly two days before they saw him using his face mask incorrectly.

22. Yoendri Fornaris, one of the people who protested on July 11th, denounced a surveillance operation at her residence.

Jiguaní

23. Noeima Rodríguez was visited by the chief of State Security in the province to intimidate her and threaten her, incuding her children.

Guantanamo

Baracoa

24. Yoel Acosta Gámez was detained in his home and Emilio Almaguer de la Cruz denounced surveillance operations

Guantanamo

25. Niober García received a police summons and denounced the surveillance operation established at his home, in addition to Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina

Camagüey

26. Harrassment of the headquarters of Partido Libertario Cubano [Cuban Libertarian Party] José Martí

27. Surveillance at the home of Lady in White María Cristina Labrada Varona.

Santiago de Cuba

Santiago de Cuba

28. Eduardo Clavel Rizo received a police summons and as he returned from the interrogation they conducted an act of repudiation.

29. Eloy Calugna, Fernando Castro and Pastor René Machado were detained

30. We received reports of military presence in the streets of this municipality

31. Jorge Amado Robert denounced surveillance operations. Captain Ronaldo from State Security told him he could not leave his home.

Palma Soriano

32. Marioldis Delgado Romero received a police summons. Denia Fernández Rey and her husband were threatened by police to they would not leave their houses.

Sancti Spíritus

33. The military presence in Trinidad city was denounced.

Villa Clara

Santa Clara

34. Saily González, Raux Denis Rodríguez, Omar Mena and Leidy Laura Hernández denounced surveillance operations at their homes.

35. Persons dressed in civilian clothing harrassed Víctor Javier Ariaz Ruiz for putting a sign up at his house. An act of repudiation was conducted.

Camajuaní

36. Librado Linares was intercepted in the street by Security agent who told him he could not leave his house until the 16th.

Pinar del Río

Pinar del Río

37. Under house arrest Julio César Góngora Millo. Consolación del Sur.

38. An act of repudiation for Yahima Díaz. Minas de Matahambre.

39. Surveillance at the home of Pedro Víctor Serrano.

Mayabeque

40. Quivicán. Reports of harassment of detainees.

Artemisa

41. Alquízar. Diasniurka Salcedo is under house arrest.

Matanzas

42. Cárdenas. Surveillance at the home of Carlos Manuel Álvarez who is in New York.

Isla de la Juventud

43. Act of repudiation for David Gómez Sánchez.

Holguín

44. Víctor González, one of the signers of the application for the march on 15N, was detained.

45. Miguel Alejandro Montero Ochoa, moderator of Archipiélago, was reported missing 24 hours ago. He later published a video informing that he was detained under Criminal Instruction. He was later released.

Ciego de Avila

46. A military event was held in Martí Park.

Las Tunas

Las Tunas

47. A grand police deployment with sirens throughout the streets of the city.

Jobado

48. Pedro Lago Segura detained at work.

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

Repression Stifles the 15N March in Cuba and Spreads Popular Unrest

The streets of Havana continue with a strong police operation. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 15 November 2021 — Since dawn on Monday, State Security agents dressed in civilian clothes were deployed in squares and parks and took the rooftops near the Capitol building in Havana, as part of the operation to prevent the Civic March called for three in the afternoon of this November 15, a march that ultimately could not be carried out because of the repression.

“This is hot,” shared Yuniel, a young man who gave testimony to 14ymedio in the vicinity of Central Park. This 28-year-old from Havana was one of the few who dared to leave his home, in a day in which many parents prevented their young children and teenagers from setting foot outside their homes for fear of being arrested.

Plainclothes officers who pretended to be standing in line outside a store, streets with few passers-by, and vigilante groups on street corners marked this Monday, a day when repression managed to drown out the call to march, but also left a deep malaise among citizens, fed up with the increase in controls experienced on the island after the protests of July 11.

When the clock struck three in the afternoon, the time agreed for the Civic March, the almost deserted streets in some areas of Central Havana, Old Havana, Cerro and Plaza de la Revolución were the panorama on display. Many restless political police officers on the street corners, the occasional passerby in their daily work, and some people dressed in white.

“Here in Prado there are police, military and many segurosos – State Security agents — the atmosphere is very tense. I also see the international press, red berets and repudiators. When I was walking here I saw a small group dressed in white going up to Central Park, but very small,” described a young woman from the downtown promenade, who insisted on pointing out the presence of many “disguised policemen, especially dressed in blue and red.”

A couple of young people were detained near the Paseo del Prado while shouting “Patria y Libertad” under the terrified gazes of continue reading

some neighbors who were watching them from balconies or windows. The two men, yet to be identified, were quickly intercepted and arrested by police, according to a video posted on social media.

Nos acaban de detener ❗❗❗?Ayuda pic.twitter.com/kGGVI71whI

— Céspedes (@luarCespedes) November 15, 2021

Galiano, one of the main streets of Centro Habana and the street that the protesters walked on July 11, remains closed to vehicles from its beginning on the avenue of the Malecón to Calle Reina. The road, a commercial artery with many covered walkways and close to Paseo del Prado, was considered as an alternative route for those who planned to march on 15N.

The day was atypical, without bustle and lines. “In one of the Carlos III’s stores they were selling bread and ham in national currency,” Yuniel said. One of the shop assistants showed her fear and mentioned that she was “crazy to go home” but had to be there until 9 pm. “They forced us to work,” she said.

The bank branch on Calle Aranguren, which normally closes at 3:30 pm, moved up the end of the day. “Today and tomorrow it closes at two in the afternoon,” said a civil guard to an astonished customer. Many private businesses did not open their doors and others warned their customers that they were suspending home delivery until next Wednesday.

Dozens of independent activists, artists and journalists have been detained in the last hours or remain under siege since Sunday to prevent them from leaving their homes. One of the few people who has been able to evade the police siege was the independent reporter Iliana Hernández, who left to march at 3 pm.

“My mission was to show them [the Government] that it was not impossible to escape as I have done on other occasions,” Hernández said in a video shared by CiberCuba. She also said that at some point in the next few hours they will arrest her but the important thing was that at three in the afternoon she was on the street “dressed in gray because today is a gray day for Cuba.” “It is sad that we have to live this way but for that we are fighting not to live like this anymore.”

Despite the surveillance, some went out dressed in white to tour the city, the color that the organizers of the call had promoted. Others showed their sympathy with the March in other ways: A 60-year-old state worker proudly showed the screen of her mobile with an image of her cousin “making an L with her hand the symbol of freedom” and let this newspaper know his how to sync with him for 15N.

“I do not see an end to this, if every time someone disagrees they go, they stage an act of repudiation,” said the woman, alluding to a change. “We are going to run out of young people, that is the greatest thing, but hopefully [the change] will come soon.”

For his part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez, described this Monday as a “failed operation” referring to the call for a peaceful march on 15N, declared illegal by the Government.

“There is a lot to tell about all the good that has happened and there are also some things to reveal about this failed operation that tried to articulate and that has been a complete failure,” he said referring to the protests in a live broadcast from the website of Foreign Ministry’s Facebook page.

Rodríguez dedicated a large part of his speech to highlighting the reopening of the Island and spoke of the #CubaVive label used by officialdom in the last hours to show that the Island is experiencing “normal tranquility.” The hashtag also appears on several posters that have been used by the Rapid Response Brigades and repressors in acts of repudiation of opponents and members of the Archipiélago platform.

____________

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Havana

Granma

Guantanamo

Camagüey

Santiago de Cuba

Sancti Spíritus

Villa Clara

Pinar del Río

Mayabeque

Artemisa

Matanzas

Isla de la Juventud

Holguín

Ciego de Avila

Las Tunas

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