Pedazos de la Isla has details of recent repression in Placetas against Cuban freedom activists:
In the island of Cuba, the act of peacefully commemorating national heroes who have lost their lives while they have fought for the countries freedom- as has been the case with Pedro Luis Boitel and Orlando Zapata Tamayo- results in detainment, arrests, beatings, and large scale violence on behalf of the regime. That dictatorship’s status quo allows and defends such actions.
As a result of the protests and demonstrations which took place from May 13th on, under the title of Boitel & Zapata Live On Protest, dozens of dissidents were violently confronted by agents of Castro’s regime. Perhaps one of the most brutal of these events took place in Placetas, Villa Clara.
Activists from the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience Front and from the Rosa Parks Movement for Civil Rights were arrested during the afternoon hours of May 25th, right when the Boitel-Zapata Protest was culminating and after a public march. Among these dissidents were Jorge Luis Garcia “Antunez”, Idania Yanes Contrera, Alcides Rivera Rodriguez, Yris Tamara Perez Aguilera, and also Adriano Castaneda Meneses, an active member of the Orlando Zapata Civic Front who, in conversation with this blog, narrates, “During the closing of the Boitel-Zapata Live On Protest (which we also dedicated to Juan Wilfredo Garcia Soto who we lovingly referred to as ‘The Student’), we were carrying out a completely peaceful and silent march in which the participants were wearing their clothes inside out as a form of protest“.
Despite just how peaceful this march was, the authorities of the regime rapidly responded. “State Security really just feared other actions so they militarized the entire city of Placetas because they became very scared knowing that the people would join the opposition,” says Castaneda Meneses. As it tends to happen on the island, upon seeing that the dissidents were not giving in, regime officials began to carry out the beatings. “The women were beat, especially Yris Tamara Perez Aguilera. She was excessively beat by the State Security official whose last name is Veliz and who goes by the nickname of ‘The Weightlifter’. This agent is nothing else than a criminal who receives orders to beat defenseless women. Imagine that, if they beat innocent women what can we expect? We already know how this dictatorship behaves“, states Adriano.
Read the whole report here.
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