English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Jeovany Jiminez Vega, 24 July 2021 — “Our enemy follows one plan: to anger us, scatter us, divide us, drown us. That’s why we must follow another plan: to demonstrate our greatness, to come together, join each other, outwit them, to finally make our homeland free. Plan against plan.” What did July 11th mean for … Continue reading “Cuba: Following July 11th, Now What? / Jeovany Jimenez Vega”
14ymedio, Havana, 25 October 2021 — In another act of repression, the Mayabeque Provincial Prosecutor’s Office has requested sanctions ranging from six to 25 years for the 11J (11 July) protesters. Maikel Puig Bergolla and eight other detainees, who preferred not to make their identity public, have seen “forced some arguments to apply crimes” to them, such … Continue reading “The Mayabeque Prosecutor’s Office Asks for up to 25 Years in Prison for Nine of the July 11th Protestors in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, Cuba, October 4, 2021–Cuban prosecutors seek an eight-year prison sentence for Yoan de la Cruz, a young man who on July 11th streamed a live feed of the first protests in San Antonio de los Baños, considered to be the start of the anti-government protests throughout the entire country. The information, the details … Continue reading “Cuban Prosecutors Seek Eight-Year Sentence for Streaming Protests from San Antonio de los Banos on July 11th”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 September 2021 — The image of a young man violently taken into custody by a plainclothes policeman a few meters from the Capitol in Havana has become one of the iconic photos of the repression against protesters on July 11. Now, the protagonist of the snapshot taken by a 14ymedio reporter faces a sanction of ten months … Continue reading “Ten Months Forced Labor for Young Cuban Marching on the Street on July 11th”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 14 September 2021 – No sooner had I closed to the door to my house, early in the morning, and gone out into the street to get a place in line at the brand new Casa de las Conservas (House of Preserves), than I noticed the unusual scene. Four women … Continue reading “‘It Looks Like the July 11th of Jam’ a Cuban Shopper Jokes”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 7 September 2021 — For the first time, one of the complaints of mistreatment of the detainees of July 11 (11J) has had consequences. The officer accused of having beaten the university student Leonardo Romero Negrín while he was in custody, has been sanctioned by the Prosecutor’s Office with “administrative measures.” According … Continue reading “Cuba: A Policeman Who Beat a July 11th Protestor in Custody is Sanctioned”
Cubalex, 6 September 2021 Why shouldn’t the July 11 protesters be prosecuted? The protesters of July 11 cannot be prosecuted for the crime of public disorder, or any other. Firstly, Article 56 (New Constitution of Cuba, 2019) provides that “the rights of assembly, demonstration, and association, for lawful and peaceful purposes, are recognized by the … Continue reading “CUBALEX Answers Questions From Our Users About the Events and Repression After July 11th / Cubalex”
14ymedio, Havana | 2 Septiembre 2021 — The writer Mario Vargas Llosa on Wednesday added his signature to a petition on Charge.org for the freedom of Cubans, particularly those detained after the massive protests on July 11. The initiative, published by the writer Enrique del Risco as “SOS Cuba,” is a letter addressed to Miguel Díaz-Canel in … Continue reading “Mario Vargas Llosa Signs a Petition for the Release of the July 11th Detainees in Cuba”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 3 September 2021 — The leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, joined the fast of other dissidents on Thursday in support of the opponents José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro, both former prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003, who were arrested on July 11, the day of the … Continue reading “Cuba’s Ladies in White Show Solidarity With the 11J (July 11th) Detainees”
14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, 25 August 2021 — In the worst days of the Special Period crisis, when I was asked during a Miami radio program if I thought that people in Cuba were going to take to the streets, I replied: “The only street where people could launch themselves would be the Malecón, trying … Continue reading “And After July 11th, What Comes Next?”
14ymedio, Havana, July 26th, 2021 — Yoan de la Cruz, who shared the live broadcast of the first protests in San Antonio de los Baños that sparked the demonstrations all over the island, was arrested last Friday, according to reports from his family and friends on social media. “He is my nephew, a really good … Continue reading “Social Media Rallies for the Release of Cuban Who Shared First Live Video Of July 11th Protests”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 14 July 2021 — Despite government efforts to make people believe that the popular protests on Sunday, July 11, were organized from the United States and that they were only isolated incidents carried out by antisocial elements, most Cubans have a new perception about the prevailing level of disagreement with the … Continue reading “Cuba Changed on July 11th”
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, July 15, 2023 — We have reached the second anniversary of the peaceful protests led by young Cubans on 11 July 2021, and close to the 67th anniversary of the bloody attack on the Moncada barracks, organized and directed by Fidel Castro on 26 June 1953. The protests of July 11th … Continue reading “Cuba: The Violence of the 26th of June, the Peace of the 11th of July”
14ymedio, 11 July 2023 — Dark shirt, mask and authoritative gesture. This is how Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel appeared before the television cameras on the 11th of July 2021, when the largest popular protests in the history of Cuba shook the streets of the Island. It was at that moment that he spoke the phrase … Continue reading “The 11th of July in Cuba, ’11J’, the ‘Combat Order’ Still Stands”
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 25 May 2022 — A total of 519 of the 564 people who have been tried in Cuba for the anti-government demonstrations last July – 92% – have been sentenced and 40 are still awaiting their sentencing, the NGO Justicia 11J reported on Tuesday. According to a statement from the organization, only five … Continue reading “Only Five of 524 Cubans Charged for 11th July (11J) Protests Have Been Acquitted”
