MIAMI, United States. – This Wednesday, at least five activists, including academic Alina Bárbara López Hernándezwere arrested in Havana and Matanzas, as confirmed by several human rights organizations.
In addition to López Hernández, among those arrested are the activists Fernando Vázquez, Diasniurka Salcedo, Ana Mary García and Nubia Gavilán, according to Amnesty International (AI), the Legal Information Center (Cubalex) and the Hannah Arendt Artivism Institute ( TO URGE).
“We have received information about the arbitrary detentions of Alina Bárbara López, Fernando Vázquez, Diasniurka Salcedo, Ana Mary García and Nubia Gavilán. The Cuban government must release them immediately, no one must be detained for exercising their freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.” tweeted Amnesty International.
The arrest of López Hernández, a member of the Cuban Academy of History, took place in Matanzas at around 9:30 am, when he was going to his place of work, according to the organization Cubalex. Until the publication of this note, it was unknown if the academic had been released.
On the other hand, in Havana, the activists Fernándo Vázquez, Diasniurka Salcedo, Nubia Gavilán and Ana María García were detained. Garcia is the mother of Brenda Diaza trans woman arrested in the anti-government protests of July 2021 who is being held in the male section of the Cuba-Panama prison.
In a telephone conversation with the EFE agency, García narrated his experience of arrest and detention that began in the John Lennon Park, in Vedado, Havana, at 10:00 in the morning this Wednesday. The woman was transferred to a police station in La Lisa and then transported to her town, Güira de Melena.
“They asked me for my phone number, my identity card, they put me in the patrol car and when I arrived at the municipality they locked me up in an office of the State Security of the province to talk to me about why I had left, [que] why was he in Havana…”, García told EFE.
