MIAMI, United States. – Andrea Ojeda, vice president of the Chilean political party Renovación Nacional and of the Union of Latin American Parties (UPLA), sponsored the Cuban political prisoner Arianna Lopez Roquein an initiative that aims to provide a voice and protection to women detained for political reasons on the island, according to an EFE report.
Roque, former president of the Julio Machado Academy in Placetas, Cuba, was arrested for participating in the peaceful protests of July 11 (July 11), 2021, for which she was sentenced to eight years in prison. From the Guamajal prison, in Santa Clara, she has reported on threats and torture.
This sponsorship project presented in Miami on May 16 is promoted by UPLA, an organization based in Santiago de Chile that is home to more than 25 conservative political parties from 21 countries. Its president, Argentine Julián Obligio, highlighted the “impressive response” of the members of the UPLA Women’s Network to the sponsorship commitment.
The first sponsorship was assumed by Jimena de La Torre, lawyer and counselor of the Magistracy of the Argentine Nation. De La Torre’s “goddaughter” is Donaida Pérez Paseiro, president of the Association of Free Yorubas of Cuba, also detained in Villa Clara after 9/11 and sentenced to eight years in prison.
“As director of the UPLA Women’s Network, I uphold their fight for freedom,” wrote on Twitter Salvadoran Martha Evelyn Batres, referring to Lizandra Gongora Espinosa, 35 years old, mother of five children and another of the political prisoners of the Cuban regime. Espinosa was arrested and charged with “sabotage” and “public disorder” after demonstrating on July 11, 2021.
The initiative intends that 137 prominent women from Latin America sponsor, each one, a Cuban political prisoner, in order to give follow-up and visibility to their cases. All of the political prisoners selected for the project were imprisoned in the aftermath of the 9/11 protests.
