CDMX, Mexico. – This Saturday, May 6, hundreds of people protested in the streets of alligatora town located more than 900 kilometers from Havana and adjacent to the US naval base in Guantánamo.
Given its proximity to that little piece of the United States in the Caribbean and the relevance that the regime gives to it, it seemed that if one place on the Island was completely tied to the script of the regime, it was Caimanera. However, the residents of the town came out to protest for almost two hours until the demonstration was violently put down by a group of Black Berets and State Security agents.
While the military repressed in the East, Cubans throughout the country were left without internet. When the connection was reestablished, various official versions of what had supposedly happened in Caimanera began to circulate. These versions concealed relevant information and even lied in the most unlikely ways.
Were there popular festivals?
From the same night of May 6 the professor of History of Cuba who identifies himself in networks as Frank Enrique began to divulge that there were hundreds of people in the streets as part of a party, not a demonstration. This is false.
(Screenshot)CubaNet confirmed with three residents of the town that said festivities did not exist. “People were inside their houses, like any day, until they heard the young people demonstrating and they joined. There was no party”, emphasizes Yeris Curbelo, a collaborator of Palenque Visión.
After a brief review of the accounts of Frank Enrique, who describes himself as a “soldier of the Revolution”, it is clear that he continually shares government propaganda. In addition, he usually labels officials who work and have directed the Ideological Committee of the Party. In fact, the version parallel to reality that the young man has written in various tweets does not seem to be just a product of his imagination.
This same hypothesis was supported by the MINFAR Twitter account. The Ministry of the Armed Forces denied that it was a massive protest (although the videos show otherwise). The military also insisted that there was a “popular party”.
In addition, the official account added that “the population contributed to restoring order.” About that, the MINFAR also lies. “Order” was not restored by the population, but by State Security agents and members of the Black Berets commando group. The videos prove it.
Curbelo points out that no civilian attacked the demonstrators; on the contrary, they joined them as support. “A few years ago, if we demonstrated, the rapid response groups (many people were from INDER) threw stones at us or hit us. Last night no one did. They had to go to the military to repress. They have fewer and fewer Cubans on their side,” said the citizen journalist.
Total silence on the repression
Once internet access was restored, several videos how the military had violently repressed the people. Men and women who had come out to ask for food and “freedom” were thrown to the ground and beaten. Five of the protesters remain in enforced disappearance. Your families they do not know his whereabouts and they have not communicated.
CubaNet interviewed the mothers of three of the detainees. One of them describes the horror witnessed thus:
“I’m desperate. They have missing my major. Luis Miguel Alarcón Martínez was kicked in the head. I don’t know if my son is alive or dead. His sister came out to help him and they beat him wherever he wanted. They gave me, my daughter got cookies too ”, recounts Victoria Martínez Valdivia, mother of two of the detained protesters.
Also in interview with CubaNetZoralia Matos Paján, mother of Yandris Pelier Matos, another of the detaineesdenounced that the Black Berets beat his son’s head to pieces.
In addition to these testimonies, several videos are circulating that show up close how the military repressed a hungry people. Despite these tests, no official version mentions how they managed to break up the protest.
Three drunks cut the internet?
The official versions, both from the propaganda media and from spokespersons for the regime, have insisted on summarizing the motive for the protest as alcohol consumption. Initially they mentioned that, in a drunken state, three men had started the demonstration. This Sunday, cubadebate he changed the number of drunkards from three to “a small group”, possibly to explain why multiple voices were shouting “Long live human rights”, “Patria y Vida”.
As for the reason that led these men to protest, the mother of two detainees points out that it was not alcohol, but rather weariness and misery. “They came out because they saw what their nephews were eating: peas with weevils, rice and a boiled plantain, all cooked without oil. What are we? males [cerdos]?, Victoria questioned.
“They left because they couldn’t take it anymore. Hearing those little creatures say they were hungry, ”she sentenced.
Another of the opportune omissions from the official discourse has been not to mention that for almost two hours there was no internet access in the country. A strategy that the regime usually puts into practice every time there are protests in Cuba, to avoid a domino effect like that of July 11, 2021.
On the same night of May 6, the NetBlocks Observatory confirmed the disruption of internet services on the island. “Network data shows the collapse of internet traffic in Cuba amid protests for freedom and human rights around to Caimanera, Guantánamo”, detailed the observatory.
The government and its spokesmen insist that Caimanera is “anti-imperialist and revolutionary.” They repeat over and over again that there was no demonstration, except for some unscrupulous drunkards. But no one explains how those three men in Guantanamo managed to take down the internet for the entire country.
