The activist Cosme Damian Domínguez Peñalver accuses State Security of encouraging a scuffle between him and the family of the deceased at the funeral home
14ymedio, Madrid, 2 December 2024 — Manuel de Jesús Guillén Esplugas, imprisoned in Combinado del Este Prison after having been involved in the Island-wide protests on 11 July 2021 [’11J’], died on Saturday from a beating he received in prison, according to reports by Justicia 11J and Cuba Decide, of which he was a promoter. An activist of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), Guillén was serving six years in prison for having filmed and distributed videos of the anti-government marches of more than three years ago.
“We denounce with profound indignation the vile murder of Manuel de Jesús Guillén Esplugas, political prisoner, member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), promoter of Cuba Decide and protester of 11 July. Manuel was beaten to death by hitmen of the Castro regime in the Combinado del Este prison,” denounced the platform, led by Rosa María Payá, from its Facebook account.
The message emphasized that Guillén was a “brave activist [who] raised his voice against oppression, confronting the regime with determination and courage,” and calls on democratic governments and the international community to condemn the crime and prevent it from going unpunished. “Manuel’s murder not only exposes the brutality of the Díaz-Canel and Raúl Castro regime, but is part of a systematic pattern of repression, torture and murder against those who fight for freedom in Cuba,” the statement argues.
Manuel de Jesús Guillén Esplugas, preso en el Combinado del Este tras haberse manifestado el 11 de julio de 2021, falleció el sábado por una golpiza que le propinaron en la cárcel, según denunciaron Justicia 11J y Cuba Decide https://t.co/sbAmF2F7jp pic.twitter.com/plypfqiEd6
— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) December 2, 2024
Dania María Esplugas, the young man’s mother, who lived in Old Havana until his arrest, denounced the violence of his death in front of her son’s body in a video that has circulated on social media, presumably taken in the Zanja funeral home in Centro Habana. “They beat him to death, the bastards of this country! But this is not going to stay like this,” cries the woman who, however, had an incident with the UNPACU activist Cosme Damian Domínguez Peñalver.
According to the opposition member, this Sunday he went to the funeral home “which was under the control of State Security.” “I was surprised that I was not bothered and much less arrested,” he said on his Facebook account. “Three minutes after being there I was surprised by Manuel de Jesús’ sister and family, when they told me that the State Security officer Adrián did not want me there and they shouted to me that I was responsible for Manuel being where he is today, because I had brought him into the opposition group UNPACU and sent him to carry out counterrevolutionary acts. I responded, only out of respect, and I left the funeral home, without being bothered by State Security, who was there, because their strategy worked and perhaps they even filmed videos of this regrettable and shameful event,” he says.
The activist says that he met Manuel de Jesús when he, who was already a member of UNPACU, was sent to the “cell” that he coordinated, and he regretted that the family members acted in this way, “playing the dictatorship’s game.” For Domínguez, the struggle of the organization he is part of – “and this is what activists are told when they join” – is exclusively peaceful, which is why on ’11J’ Manuel de Jesús “went out onto the streets like many Cubans to express his discontent and made use of his freedom to demonstrate peacefully.”
The activist claims that Guillén Esplugas was accused of public disorder and vandalism “after it was proven that he was involved in breaking the windows of the Municipal Court on Monte Street”
The activist claims that Guillén Esplugas was accused of public disorder and vandalism “after it was proven that he was involved in breaking the windows of the Municipal Court on Monte Street, between Figura Street and Carmen Street, in Old Havana” and that his mother was informed by the top leadership of UNPACU in the capital that if this was the case he would be expelled from the organization.
“Even so, I never left him on his own and I did everything possible to ensure that he and his mother received monetary and food aid. I have a clear conscience. When no one else spoke up, I did it, for him and for all the political prisoners in Cuba,” he says, hurt.
In Guillén’s case, as in so many others linked to the ’11J’ demonstrations, there were several irregularities, the main one being the fact that he remained in provisional prison without a trial date or a request from the prosecution for more than a year and a half. The courts rejected two habeas corpus requests by his lawyer.
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