LIMA, Peru – The United States Embassy in Cuba was pronounced this Saturday in favor of the release of the young people Ernesto Ricardo Medina and Kamil Zayas Pérez, members of the El4tico audiovisual project.
“We join the call of many to release and respect the human rights of the young people of El4tico in Holguín – Ernesto Ricardo Medina and Kamil Zayas Pérez,” the diplomatic headquarters demanded on its Facebook page.
The NGO Justicia 11J reported in The day before, the arbitrary arrest of the young Kamil Zayas, a member of the independent audiovisual project El4tico, after a raid carried out by State Security agents in the house where the contents of the project are produced.
According to the complaint published by Justicia 11J on Facebook, the operation included the invasion of security forces with a “search warrant” in the property that functions as a recording set. At the time of publication, Zayas’ whereabouts were unknown. Relatives and friends were trying to obtain official information about his situation.
The organization also warned that Ernesto Medina and his wife Doris Santiesteban, also members of El4tico, are at risk “in the face of the repressive deployment” associated with the reported operation.
In its publication, Justicia 11J describes El4tico as “a dissident space within Cuba” that has more than 50,000 followers on Instagram. According to the NGO, from a room in the province of Holguín, the members of the project carry out critical social and political analyzes aimed directly at power.
As of the afternoon of this February 7, the young people have not been released. Anticipating his arbitrary arrest, Kamil Zayas left a statement that was already published on social networks and in which he defends his position and denounces the repressive actions of the Castro dictatorship.
«If you are seeing or reading this, it is because they finally found a way to trap me, to try to put the temporary gag on me. It is necessary to know that I am not arrested for stealing, for assault, for trafficking or for any common crime. “They arrest me for the only “crime” that a dictatorship does not tolerate: daring to look straight and say out loud what we all notice: its blunders, its chronic inefficiencies, its systematic injustices and the oppression that crushes the dignity of an entire people,” Zayas highlighted.
