14ymedio, Madrid, 4 February 2025 — The Head of Mission of the United States Embassy in Cuba, Mike Hammer, visited Cuban opponent Martha Beatriz Roque on Monday at the Manuel Fajardo hospital in Havana, where she has been hospitalized since last Saturday. According to CubaNet, Hammer transmitted to the activist a message from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who wished her a speedy recovery and hoped to be able to see her soon.
After the diplomat’s visit, it was revealed that Roque had been “transferred” to the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, which the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, who announced the transfer, described as “temporary.”
“The director of the Fajardo hospital, Dr. Mirtha, told us at 2.30 pm that they decided to transfer Martha Beatriz Roque to the Nephrology Department of the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital. The transfer will be carried out by the Integrated Medical Emergencies System, and in the company of two trusted friends, said Berta Soler, the current leader of the Ladies in White.
Roque, spokesman for the Cuban Center for Human Rights, arrived at the Manuel Fajardo intensive care unit in critical condition, with very low blood pressure, dehydration and hyperglycemia, coming from the Miguel Enríquez hospital, known as La Benéfica. As Soler and her husband, Ángel Moya, reported last Wednesday, Roque had been taken to La Benéfica due to the worsening state of her health. Roque has diabetes and is also suffering from a kidney infection.
Since then, the activists have continued to report on her medical condition, specifying that Roque had “trusted friends” by her side.
The activists have continued to report on her medical condition, specifying that Roque had “trusted friends” by her side
These days, the opponent has been improving, and this Monday she went from a “critically unstable” condition to “serious but stable.” According to a publication by Soler this Tuesday, Roque is “conscious but disoriented in time and space.”
Roque was the only woman who was part of the Group of 75 Cubans who suffered imprisonment during the so-called Black Spring of 2003. Founder of the Cuban Institute of Independent Economists, in 1997 she started the Internal Dissent Working Group. The document La patria es de todos – (The Country Belongs to Everyone) – signed with Félix Bonne Carcassés, René Gómez Manzano and Vladimiro Roca – pointed out the management errors of the Communist Party during the Special Period in the 1990s, and it dates from those years.
Roque was one of the Faces of 2024 chosen by 14ymedio, which also celebrated the delivery of the Woman of Courage award, which the US Government gives to those who “have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength and leadership in defending peace, justice and human rights.” Roque, however, could not go to Washington to receive the award because she is “regulated,” that is, banned from leaving the national territory.
At that time, she told 14ymedio something that gives the measure of her work in favor of democracy in the last 35 years, and its impact on the regime: “The hatred they have for me is terrible.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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