14ymedio, Havana, July 11, 2024 — The third anniversary of the massive protests of 11 July 2021 (11J) takes place for the Police and State Security like the previous ones: with the harassment and surveillance of activists, dissidents and independent journalists. Since the day before, the editorial staff of 14ymedio has been incommunicado, as have many other Cubans who have expressed in one way or another their disagreement with the regime.
Among the cases, that of Dagoberto Valdés stands out, who was summoned on Tuesday for an interrogation this Wednesday at 9 in the morning. The director of the Center for Coexistence Studies was summoned to State Security headquarters in Pinar del Río, where he waited five hours for the officer, Major Lázaro, who gave him a warning citation.
The objective was to inform Valdés that he could be charged with six crimes defined in the Criminal Code, including “incitement to violence, association to commit crimes, destabilization of international peace and violation of constitutional precepts,” he explained on his departure. The officer indicated to him that there was “nothing to celebrate” on 11J because “the 2021 demonstrations were violent acts,” and the activist rejected both the possibility of committing any of the aforementioned crimes and any other, in addition to signing the citation.
The officer told him that there was “nothing to celebrate” on 11J because “the 2021 demonstrations were violent acts”
Then Major Ernesto, who “takes care of [the group] Coexistence,” joined the interrogation and insisted, in the same vein, about the inconvenience of Valdés attending any activity scheduled for this Thursday or Friday, recalling the anti-government protests that also continued on July 12, 2021.
Both agents told the activist that he should not be “influenced by people and associations from inside and outside Cuba that intend to involve him in the organization of events against the Government,” and they complained about his attendance at the reception on July 4 organized at the US Embassy in Havana, because, they said, “it was a meeting place for people financed by the enemy to destabilize” the country.
Raymar Aguado Hernández, writer and activist, was another of those who raised his voice this Wednesday over a summons from State Security, which urged him to appear at the Cayo Hueso Council, located at 55 Infanta Street for an “interview.” Thirty minutes later he was in the Key West Council Sector of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR).
As he said on his departure, First Lieutenant Rogelio and Officer Mía asked him what he planned to do this Thursday, to which he answered with another question: “What can’t I do tomorrow?”
The agent replied: “Do you remember what happened a few years ago? That’s what you can’t do tomorrow.” The rest of the interview took place with questions about his absence from Pride, how his friends’ families were in Gaza or if he had met with the La Joven Cuba team, but nothing was as relevant as what surrounded the anniversary.
“Do you remember what happened a few years ago? That’s what you can’t do tomorrow”
Aguado Hernández points out that these facts indicate the “powerfulness” of the date, turned into an “emblem that makes the authoritarianism of the Cuban State nervous,” and although he says he does not know his plans are for today, he warns: “In the face of an explosion from below: proletarian, popular, anti-authoritarian… I don’t know, I won’t be able to resist.”
Among the activists who have had the internet cut off are Manuel Cuesta Morúa, of the Plataforma Nuevo País, activist Marthadela Tamayo; María Elena Mir, of the Independent National Workers’ Confederation of Cuba and rapper Osvaldo Navarro (Navy Pro).
Independent journalist Yunia Figueredo has reported on social networks that she has been on guard at the door of her house since Tuesday. “Why, instead of repressing and guarding and putting us under house arrest, don’t they release all political prisoners on 11J? They are such rats that the only thing they show is fear,” she wrote this morning, tired of the threats. The agents approached, she says, to tell her that if she leaves her house before the 14th she will incur a crime of contempt.
In addition, journalist José Luis Tan Estrada was already called on July 6 for an interrogation in which he was warned that he must refrain from making any publication on his social networks, as well as attend public places, under threat of being imprisoned for disobedience and contempt.
Also on June 28, Roberto Álvarez, one of the founders of the Democracy Movement, was prevented from entering Cuba. The activist was going to travel to Villa Clara from Miami to visit his father, who was very ill.
Meanwhile, Marta Perdomo, mother of the prisoners of 11J, Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo, denounced on Facebook that she has not heard from the latter for two weeks. “This is one more crime, like so many others. What they are doing is torturing Jorgito and the whole family for the simple fact of raising our voices for all the injustices that have been done to them and continue being done to them,” she proclaimed.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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