14ymedio, Madrid, 10 November 2022 — Diana Meizoso, the mother of the girl Elizabeth, one of the fatalities of the boat sunk by the Cuban authorities in Bahía Honda, Artemisa, was arrested this Thursday by State Security and taken to its headquarters in Villa Marista, in Havana, her brother Héctor confirmed to 14ymedio.
The young man explained to Radio Televisión Martí that the day before, other survivors of the tragedy were cited. On Thursday morning his sister was taken away, although, he says, “the officer in charge promised his mother that they would return her at the end of the investigation.” The agents did not allow anyone from the family to accompany her.
During the last few weeks, Meizoso, who saw her two-year-old daughter die after the raft on which they had left for the United States was attacked by the Cuban Border Guards on October 28, has had no qualms about talking to the media to tell what happened.
“They rammed the boat and broke it in the middle,” the woman said in an interview with Radio Televisión Martí, who detailed how one of the Cuban officers warned, before turning around and heading towards the boat of the balseros [rafters] and destroying it: “Now I’m going to break them in the middle.”
Meizoso’s words corroborated both the version given to this newspaper by her brother Hector — “it was not an accident, but murder” — and the version of different organizations of Miami’s exile community, which describe the events as “a crime against humanity.”
On the boat, in which at least 25 people were traveling, there were ten relatives of Meizoso, of whom three died: in addition to Elizabeth, Yerandy García Meizoso and Aimara Meizoso. Four others — Israel Gómez, Indira Serrano Cala, Nathali Acosta Lemus and Omar Reyes Valdés — lost their lives, and one more remains missing.
Considering them responsible for what it considers a “cold-blood murder,” the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba has on its list of repressors four officers of the Border Guard Troops: Raidel Rodríguez López, Leovanys Cutiño Rodríguez, Jorge Argelio Samper Muarra and Jorge Luis Navarro Nolasco.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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