HAVANA, Cuba.- From the Combinado del Este penitentiary center, in the Cuban capital, the 11J protester Yasiel Hernández Márquez denounces the unjust sentence received in retaliation for participating in the popular protests that took place in July 2021 in numerous locations on the island .
Yasiel Hernández is 36 years old and lives in the Güira de Melena municipality, located on the southern coast of the Artemisa province. The protester told CubaNet how on July 15, police agents showed up at his house to arrest him, but he was not there. Upon his return, his wife (who was pregnant at the time) and his mother accompanied him to the municipal police unit, where the agents left him behind bars.
The young man from Artemisa continues narrating that he was transferred from the Güira de Melena police unit to the Reloj Club unit, where they made him stay for a week, after which he was transferred to the Combinado del Este.
Yasiel Hernández points out that he was tried in a collective proceeding held in mid-March against 33 protesters from the same municipality. The prosecutor’s request in his case was for 11 years in prison for the alleged crime of sabotage, which was ratified. He also stresses that the trial was full of lies and false accusations, and that the court did not accept “even the psychiatric certificates.”
Hernández Márquez adds that he has two sons, one 14 years old and another four months old who was born while he was in captivity. He also points out that at the time of his arrest his wife’s blood pressure rose and he was at risk of losing the baby.
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