At least five Cuban activists and intellectuals, including the academic Alina Bárbara Hernández, were arrested this Wednesday after the protests, according to reports from different Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), confirmed by the Efe news agency.
The arrests occurred in two cities, Havana and Matanzas (west), revealed the NGO Amnesty International (AI), Cubalex and the Hannah Arendt Artivism Institute (Instar).
“We have received information about the arbitrary detentions of Alina Bárbara Hernández, Fernando Vázquez, Diasniurka Salcedo, Ana Mary García and Nubia Gavilán. The Cuban government must release them immediately, no one should be detained for exercising their freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” AI stressed.
In the case of Hernández, the arrest occurred “in front of the Matanzas stadium, when he was going to (…) his work,” warned Cubalex, based in Miami.
So far, this NGO does not know if the academic has already been released.
Hernández, a member of the Academy of the History of Cuba, had announced on Tuesday night, on his social networks, that he would march this Wednesday in Matanzas, as he has been doing for several weeks.
“What better day for a demonstration than the anniversary of the birth of Antonio Maceo? [herói nacional cubano]. Other compatriots will also do it in Havana to demand the release of the political prisoners, a demand that I also support,” he said.
Hernández has consistently taken to the streets to protest the arrest of journalist and writer Jorge Fernández Era in April.
The historian had also denounced that the island authorities did not allow her to renew her passport.
Meanwhile, the activists Fernándo Vázquez, Diasniurka Salcedo, Nubia Gavilán and Ana María García, mother of the transsexual protester of the anti-government protests of July 2021, Brenda Díaz, detained in the male wing of a specialized prison for people with disabilities, were also detained. HIV. In the Habana.
“We denounce the political harassment exercised against the comedian Jorge Fernández Era and the jurist René Fidel González García,” denounced Instar.
Ana María García confirmed to the Efe agency that she and Gavilán were arrested this Wednesday morning, when they were in the John Lennon Park, in the central Vedado neighborhood.
After being taken to a police station in the municipality of La Lisa, in Havana, she was released almost five hours later in her municipality, she added.
“They asked me for my phone number, my identity card, they put me in the car and when I arrived at the municipality they locked me up in a State Security office in the province to explain the reason for my departure, why I was in Havana “he told Efe.
The island lives in an environment of deep economic crisis, shortages of basic products such as food, fuel or medicine, and high inflation.
The anti-government protests on July 11, 2020, the largest in Cuba in decades, have resulted in thousands of people arrested and nearly 700 sentenced so far, in some cases up to 30 years in prison.
Source: TSF
