MIAMI, United States. – The Cuban actor Roque Moreno, popular for his participation in soap operas and other dramatized ones, assured this week on his Facebook wall that he was “a happy man”, but that he lived “in a sad country, fractured and abandoned by more than a million of his children”.
In his post, Roque alluded to the demonstrations that took place on the island in late September and early October.
“If I do not have the courage to throw myself into the street, at least I will have the decorum not to appear calm and happy when thousands, millions of brothers, live a life of lack, frustration and pain,” he wrote.
He also assured: “There is a Cuba that only exists in triumphalist news or on billboards. I live in another where the people live running and fighting like animals for a little food, toilet, water or medicine. Where young people dressed as civilians but with military boots, are forced to march with sticks in their hands against their brothers”.
The actor stated that he refused “to be an accomplice of that national Alzheimer’s that is nothing but fear. The same fear I feel the 20 times I check every sentence I write before posting. When you live in fear, it is because you live without freedom”, he finished.
Roque made his public statement after an escalation of peaceful protests and repression on the Island, due to the lack of electricity and food.
So far, Justice 11J has documented at least 28 arrests related to the protests that took place between September 30 and October 3 last. Of these, 20 are still in detention and are being prosecuted for the alleged crimes of “resistance”, “disrespect” and “public disorder”.
Since September 29, the media specialized in data journalism Inventory Project records 55 protests on the island, 48 of them in Havana. During those days, militarization was reported mainly in the capital.
For its part, the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts document 364 protests in Cuba during the month of September. For the organization, the demonstrations that took place in Havana, after the passage of Hurricane Ian, were the largest since July 11, 2021.
Various NGOs they have spoken against the criminalization of protests on the island. Erika Guevara Rosas, Director for the Americas at Amnesty International, demanded Miguel Díaz-Canel to “end the repression” and respond to “the genuine claims” of the population.
The official press has threatened to prosecute the mothers who went out with their children to protest in late September and early August over the lack of electricity.
The official spokesman Humberto López assured this Wednesday on national television that those who protest in a disorganized way in the streets will have to answer in court for participating in alleged crimes of public disorder.
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