The Cuban historian Alina Bárbara López Hernández has been at her home since 10 p.m. this Wednesday, after spending twelve hours in detention. The teacher has been accused of two crimes, disobedience and contempt, which she describes as “manufactured very crudely and carelessly” and for which she plans to file a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office.
Although López Hernandez has promised to give more details this Thursday, most of his testimony was advanced through various audios. cast on the show of the exiled filmmaker Ian Padrón in his program Right to Reply.
The teacher had planned to hold a protest yesterday against the travel ban imposed on her by the Government, but the authorities were far ahead of her action. It was barely 9 in the morning when López Hernández left her house to go to work and was detained by an agent who insisted that she should accompany her, to which she asked that her motive be explained. The sergeant said she had no information about her and she replied that she had to take her, but the teacher demanded that she call someone who could explain it, since she had not been caught in flagrante delicto.
The sergeant said she had no information and replied that she had to take it with her, but the teacher demanded that she call someone who could explain it, since she had not been caught in flagrante delicto
Finally, he managed to get a second patrolman to come, this time with a major who told him that the reason for the arrest was disobedience. The teacher, scrupulous with the procedure, then agreed to accompany the agents who kept her for several hours (which she places between three and four) at the Police station in the La Playa neighborhood, in Matanzas, until a lieutenant colonel from the police appeared. State Security
The officer opened the conversation justifying the ban imposed on him to travel to an event organized by the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy in the United States and told him that there was no reason for him to attend, which led to a political discussion. “no agreement” between them. The teacher refused to be taken to a police station without there being a reason for it, which can only be one of those provided by the Criminal Procedure Law: as a victim of a crime, as a witness or accused; and for the latter there must be a complaint against her. This exposure upset the lieutenant colonel who threatened her. “You’re going to eat here tonight,” he told her, before warning her that he was going to be charged.
Three hours later, they returned to sit her down before an instructor who read her her rights, including the obligation to have a lawyer present at the reading of the charges, ex officio if not. López Hernández asked if she could represent herself, since she knew the law and its cause better than anyone, to which they answered yes.
The professor insisted on reading the statement that was taken from her in print before signing it, and after waiting at least another two and a half hours, she was able to read the writing. “There I think that the moment of my most annoyance and indignation is reading that document. I realized that they had built that on the fly, that it did not make sense,” she explains.
According to her, the complaint stated that she had tried to escape when she was arrested at 9:10 in the morning – and she emphasizes, “the hours are important” – and, when she failed to do so, she assaulted the sergeant. “She did not touch me, nor did she approach me, and I did not even get in her car, but the important thing is that on the second page of the file it says that the arrest warrant is for the citizen Alina Bárbara López Hernández before a complaint for disobedience that was issued at 10 a.m. Keep in mind that they arrested me at 9:10, that is, they arrested me at 9:10 and 50 minutes later they issued an arrest warrant”, reasons the teacher, who ironically comparing the situation with the movie The curious Case of Benjamin Buttonwhere the protagonist rejuvenates as time passes.
López Hernández snapped at the agent that, in that case, the statement had been taken illegally, because there was no lawyer in front of him, as they explained to him in his rights, if now they denied him his ability to represent himself
Faced with facts that the historian describes as “botched”, she refused to sign the file, which led to another discussion between the agents who insisted that she should do so and her, who claimed that they did their job well. The situation was resolved when, after another two and a half hours, the officer returned to tell her that she could no longer represent herself, starting a new dispute. López Hernández snapped at the agent that, in that case, the statement had been taken illegally, because there was no lawyer before her, as they explained to her in her rights, if now they denied her the ability to represent herself. If he persisted, she warned, she would file a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office.
Finally, López Hernández was able to leave without signing the declaration and only signing a confiscation certificate for a poster with various articles of the Constitution and a phrase by Antonio Maceo. “That was confiscated to be used in the process, I think it will favor me,” he considers.
The professor returned with her two “invented” charges and “a precautionary measure of house arrest.” “Obviously, they want to fabricate a common crime case for me so as not to recognize what is really behind all this, which is a political issue, the impossibility that we citizens in Cuba have of exercising our constitutional rights. When you put them among the back and the wall and you mention the articles to them, they get very nervous,” he argues.
The teacher plans to appear at the Prosecutor’s Office this Thursday to file a claim – as you already did, successfully, in October 2022– and, later, demonstrate to defend their rights. “I’m going alone, so I don’t really know what will happen,” she said.
Just a day before, López Hernández counted on his Facebook account who attended a meeting with the high representative of foreign policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, during his visit to Cuba. At the meeting, they talked about the political prisoners that already exist and those that will be there in the future. “These were my words: ‘the Cuban political system is a potential factory for new political prisoners.’ I hope that if I go to prison, I remember what I said there.”
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