In an event held at Florida International University, the mother of three political prisoners for the protests of July 11, 2021 (11J) and a ‘self-employed worker’ injured during those demonstrations participated virtually from Havana, while in person It was done by the daughter of a Cuban resident in the United States arrested in Santiago de Cuba.
A mother speaks
By video call, Elizabeth León Martínez, mother of José Gómez León, Frandy González León and Santiago Vázquez León, assured that her children “are imprisoned for the sole crime of asking for freedom.”
He reported that one of his sons is being “sedated in prison” and another suffered a hemorrhage from being hit by rubber bullets during the popular uprising more than two years ago. “In no country in the world is it a crime to ask for freedom,” León Martínez remarked.
A fourth son of the Cuban mother, who was also detained during the massive protests of 11J, after being released took a boat and is currently “refugee” at the Guantánamo Base in Cuba, according to what he said.
“My four children were brutally detained by the ‘black berets’ (a special brigade of the Cuban regime in charge of repressing dissidents), and a daughter of mine, who is sick, fainted when she saw that they were also beating me,” he said. .
León Martínez cried out for the release of her children “because I am a single woman” and called for international solidarity to achieve that goal.
Injured self-employed person
For his part, Osiris Puerto Terry, a self-employed worker who lives south of Havana, noted that despite the injuries suffered, the Cuban regime has not yet compensated him for damages.
“I have been asking for this compensation, there is still nothing, but I also have to go to the Police monthly to report because I cannot go to any place where there are meetings or demonstrations,” he said.
Puerto Terry was the victim of three firearm projectiles fired by the regime authorities. Thanks to a neighbor who helped him, the Cuban who was selling ice cream bites that day is alive today.
US resident arrested in Cuba
Meanwhile, Rufina Velázquez, daughter of Ramón Velázquez Teranzo, a Cuban resident in the United States arrested on March 10 at the National Sanctuary of the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, in Santiago de Cuba, called for the release of her father.
“They have proposed exile to him to return to the US where he is a legal resident. My dad refuses because he is making use and exercise of his rights as a Cuban citizen to remain in his country because he has not broken any law,” he emphasized.
Velázquez Teranzo, who was previously sentenced to three years in prison for leading a march from the same religious center to the Capitol in Havana 18 years ago, is in the Villa Marista prison, known as the prison for political prisoners in the island.
His daughter Rufina said that the political prisoner “has not been accused of anything, they have detained him without any explanation and we are waiting for what the regime does to see how we can proceed.”
Rumors to which Velázquez alluded indicate that the prosecutor’s office in Santiago de Cuba “is working to prosecute him for the crime of calling for institutional disorder.”
However, in his opinion, “this has no basis because there was no disorder and he was in a religious institution making a peaceful call.”
Janniset Rivero, CFC program officer, when introducing Rufina Velázquez, highlighted that her father “made a peaceful call from El Cobre for Cubans to reflect on their reality, however, he was violently detained.”
For his part, John Suárez, executive director of the CFC, referred to a new request for Cuba’s expulsion from the UN Human Rights Council, “which is something that we have also requested.”
During the meeting at Florida International University, activist Regis Iglesias, from the Christian Liberation Movement, also participated, who advocated for a change of perspective that allows the world to “see the Cuban people and not Havana.”
Iglesias added that “we are fighting against the regime, but we want to reach out to the Cuban people, to stop seeing the regime as if it were a democracy.”
