Mexico City, Mexico.- Maikol Arcia Hernández, a native of Güines, Mayabeque, committed suicide yesterday afternoon, Friday, May 26, while fulfilling Compulsory Military Service.
The complaint was published on Facebook by a user who identified himself as the young man’s grandfather. Julio César Correa denounced that his grandson had previously commented on his suicidal thoughts, for which the family informed one of the heads of the unit where he was being held. His response was to downplay the matter and ensure that they were just “spoilt”.
“My grandson Maikol took his own life at 6:00 pm, in the mandatory service of this country. I want to clarify that my grandson had mental problems, which was never assessed. Three months ago he told me that he was going to kill himself with a shot, I spoke in depth with him, on the third day I let Captain Yordany know this concern of mine, as a family man, who told me that this was rude, “he wrote the lord in his nets.
Julio César assures that he personally asked said captain “not to hand over a weapon to his grandson, “but the officer did not understand and had him make post in a place where weapons and ammunition are found.”
Maikol’s body was lifted from the scene four hours later and his family was able to see it around four in the morning.
The relative questioned who was responsible for a dead young man. No chief of that unit, the “6244 belongs to liberation San José de las Lajas” showed his face to the family.
According to the national defense law, in Decree-Law 224, male citizens between the ages of seventeen and twenty-eight must complete Active Military Service for a period of two years. In the case of those who reached university places, this period is reduced by half, but it is still forced. Military service has been compulsory in Cuba since June 1963, as a response, according to the government, to a possible US invasion that has never occurred.
Instead, what does happen every year is that thousands of young people, some minors, leave their homes for military or work units that operate despotic and imposing command structures. In these spaces the boys are not only exposed to degrading treatment that can affect them irreversibly, but also lead to fatal outcomes.
Despite the fact that the Cuban government does not expose statistics on the matter and silences the issue in the media, Maikol Arcia Hernández is not an isolated case. In recent years, the independent press has released various records of deaths in military service.
In the majority of documented cases, the official cause of death was self-inflicted injuries.
Julio César asked for justice for his grandson and asked: How long are we going to continue holding out? This pain is for life.
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