With subpoenas at the police station, interrogations, and other police methods, they are multiplying trying to prevent critical citizens from joining the outlawed November 15 march, activists and organizations denounced this Thursday.
“I think there has not been an activist who has not been knocked on the door with a police summons, a threat, blackmail, or a suggestion that he go on a trip. In each particular case, they have sought a way to persuade him not to go out. the 15N “ , declares activist Carolina Barrero.
Known for her openly critical stance towards the Government, this curator and art historian claims to have been under house arrest for more than 200 days, with agents from the Department of State Security (DSE, intelligence, and counterintelligence body) posted 24 hours in front of her portal to prevent him from going out.
House arrests of activists have increased in recent months, especially after the July 11 protest, the largest in decades.
According to the legal advice of Cubalex, a strong deterrent campaign is taking place in the face of the peaceful march proposed for next Monday by opponents, who announced their intention to take to the streets despite the government declaring it “illegal. “
“The main complaints we have received are for the police summons and interrogations of people who have publicly said that they are going to participate in 15N, especially those who have signed the letter of public support, who are receiving systematic harassment, “ said Laritza Divergent, director of Cubalex, based in Miami.
At least two people who have been summoned and questioned by DSE agents in relation to their possible participation in the march have given testimony. Dozens have been reported on social media, many with photographs of the police summons.
One of these cases is that of a 22-year-old student who spent a week in prison last July for joining the citizen protests that took place in Havana.
“They asked me why I participated in 11J if I consider myself a counterrevolutionary, if I am dissatisfied with the government, if I know Yunior (leader of the Archipelago group and one of the promoters of 15N), or if it seems to me that the march on the 15th it’s fine, “ says the young woman.
After questioning her, the agent ordered her to sign a document by which she promised not to participate in the demonstration next Monday, explains the young woman. In any case, he confesses, he was not going to do it for fear of reprisals.
According to the director of Cubalex, “in the interrogations the most typical thing is the threat that they will be prosecuted if they leave; also the warning not to associate with people who are related to the organizers or who have publicly stated that they are going to participate. , activists, advocates, etc. “.
In the other case, that of a middle-aged man who had signed a letter of support for 15N, he stated that during questioning at his district police station he was threatened with prosecution and imprisonment if he joined the march.
Cubalex has also documented at least three cases of acts of repudiation, a kind of scratches in which groups of people related to the Cuban government intimidate a dissident, generally at home.
The main promoter of the march, Yunior García Aguilera, suffered on November 1 in his own home the screams and threats of several people, and a week before a dead animal was left at the door of his house, although the authorship is unknown. or the purpose of this action.
Other activists and citizens with positions contrary to the system in force for six decades in Cuba denounced on the networks that they had recently been expelled from their jobs in state institutions, from the actor Edel Carrero to the university professor David Martínez and the doctor Manuel Guerra, among others.
The Government has insisted in recent weeks on discrediting the 15N march with an intense campaign in the state media (the only ones officially allowed in Cuba, although there are some tolerated online news portals) and on social networks.
He assures that the convocation has “subversive” purposes and seeks a “regime change” in Cuba. It alleges that its organizers are agents in the service of the CIA and other organizations in the United States.
Ultimately, it accuses the Joe Biden Administration of being the true instigator of the protests for subsidizing organizations that provide advice or support to dissidents, as well as for maintaining the economic sanctions that they consider have exacerbated the current situation of shortages and shortages.
The 15N arrives at a delicate moment for the pocket and the patience of the Cubans, who can hardly buy products in the local currency (CUP) and the scarce goods available in the stores are sold in foreign currency – inaccessible for a large part of the population-, at very high prices and with long waiting lines. EFE