Through a statement, 14 NGOs asserted that due to the protests, which have been registered in Cuba after a blackout due to the passage of Hurricane Ian, 28 arrests have been registered, of which 20 remain under arrest and that at least two people were “brutally beaten”
Some 14 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) expressed their “concern about the growing climate of hostility, abuses and arbitrary arrests” in Cuba, a nation in which peaceful protests have been registered in recent days as a result of a large-scale blackout as a result from the passage of Hurricane Ian.
The organizations —including Justicia 11J, Cubalex, Artists at Risk Connection, the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press and Article 19— criticized in a statement the use of “extreme violence» against demonstrators by officers and armed civilians.
“The intimidation and physical violence exerted towards those who demonstrated in the past days is inadmissible. We denounce the use of extreme violence against demonstrators, artists, cultural managers, activists and other people who took to the streets to exercise their right to freedom of expression and assembly,” the text states.
The NGOs complained about the recurrent use of personnel belonging to formal security corporations and the irruption of armed people dressed in civilian clothes to repress those who protest.
They called the interruption of the internet service on the island for two consecutive nights with protests an “outrage”. For the signatories, this violates the right of citizens to be informed about events and to freely broadcast their content.
The lack of electricity service for up to consecutive days in some places, aggravated by the passage of Hurricane Ian, was the trigger for the demonstrations and the main complaint in the sit-ins and pot-banging. The independent media Project Inventory has identified 55 protests in recent days, 48 of them in Havana.
The Justice 11J collective has recorded 28 arrests, of which 20 remain under arrest. At least two, according to this initiative, were “brutally beaten.”
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