“They are going to have to take all of Bermejal,” said the mother of young opposition member Oscarleydis Blanco Lobaina.
MIAMI, United States. – The National Revolutionary Police (PNR) of Baracoa seeks to arrest Oscarleydis Blanco Lobaina, a 36-year-old young man who participated in the protests that occurred this Monday night in that city in eastern Cuba, specifically in the neighborhoods of Bermejal and Cabacú.
According to statements by Clara Lobaina, the young man’s mother, to a collaborator of CubaNet resident in the area, the head of the community sector went “to look for” Blanco Lobaina at his house “to take him detained to the Police station.” However, the woman clarified, her son was not at home and “they said that he had to go to the police or he would be detained and accused of disobedience.”
Lobaina expressed her anger and concern about the actions of the Police. “Everyone participated [en la protesta]but unfortunately they come looking for Oscarleydis. When the police officer told me what it was for, I answered that they were going to have to take all of Bermejal,” he said.
On Monday night, residents of the Cabacú neighborhood took to the streets after a blackout of more than 24 hours. However, it was not just a complaint about the electricity, but rather an outburst due to accumulated discomfort. During the protest, residents resorted to banging pots and shouting, as has happened in other areas of the country.
Who is Oscarleydis Blanco Lobaina?
According to various organizations and public records, Oscarleydis Blanco Lobaina was an activist with the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) in Baracoa. The human rights observatory EyeOnCuba has documented incidents of surveillance, threats and harassment by State Security and the PNR that involve the opponent.
The observatory describes that a head of State Security and a lieutenant of the PNR warned Blanco Lobaina that they were watching him 24 hours a day, that they would not allow “public disorder” and that the cell “was already waiting for him,” after attributing to him the placement of posters in his neighborhood.
In another report, dated February 18, 2021, the same source presents him as the activist who protested in front of the Ministry of Culture building — the so-called “Chocolate House” — because of the lines to buy products, and was the subject of insults and acts of repudiation by workers of that institution.
His name also appears on lists prepared by organizations that monitored the repression following the July 2021 protests in Cuba. A “List of detainees and missing persons Cuba – July 2021” records the case of Oscarleydis Blanco Lobaina, from Guantánamo, detained on July 17, 2021 and on “trial” for the alleged crime of “resistance.”
Furthermore, exile organizations and media have broadcast in recent years several videos where Blanco Lobaina appears as the visible face of complaints against the situation in Baracoa and against the Cuban regime. In 2022, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights released a material in which the young man denounces the extreme shortage of food, medicine and other basic products in the city.
