Returning to Cuba from Europe, where she has denounced the situation of her son, convicted after 11J, has not been easy for Ailex Marcano, mother of Ángel Jesús Véliz Marcano. The authorities subjected her to an interrogation for three hours and seized 3,000 pesos, according to what she told Radio Televisión Martí. from CamagueyWhere he lives.
Marcano was in Madrid and Geneva, invited by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, where she denounced the situation of Cuban prisoners before the Spanish press and the UN. The feeling of solidarity and support received in Europe disappeared when setting foot in the Havana airport.
“They asked me why I went to Spain, if it was by letter of invitation, what I traveled for, who I met with, what was the result, if I thought my situation was going to be resolved. I told him that here I had not been listened to, that the law was being broken because my son is not violent or aggressive and is currently serving six years in prison for attack and public disorder, that he was going to continue doing what he had to do for my son’s freedom, because he did not have to be there,” Marcano told the information portal.
The mother of Ángel Jesús Véliz Marcano had 3,000 Cuban pesos with her to return to Camagüey, which was confiscated at the airport for exceeding the 2,000 limit, which is still in force in Cuba. In the middle of last Aprilthe Central Bank of Cuba approved increasing the maximum amount of money that can be imported into the country up to 5,000 pesos, but the resolution indicated that it would enter into force 30 days after be published in the Official Gazette.
Marcano claims that a man in civilian clothes took her to the lieutenant colonel who questioned her. As she left, when she was going to get into the car to return to Camagüey, a police agent asked the driver for identification and documents. The vehicle was stopped during the journey at a checkpoint where his luggage was searched, in his opinion, looking for a t-shirt or garment with an anti-government message.
It is very sad what we relatives are experiencing just because our children participated in peaceful demonstrations, which were necessary “
Despite the disappointment, Ailex Marcano feels “super strengthened, with more energy.” In Europe she has seen “such an enormous contrast between one society and another. In other words, I am welcomed there, they help me, they make me aware and I arrive in my country and I am a stranger, I am terror, I am harassed, I am limited”, commented the woman, who has been one of the strongest voices in denouncing the imprisonment of the July 11 protesters.
His 27-year-old son was arrested on July 18, 2021 and sentenced to six years in prison, which he is serving in the Cerámica Roja prison in Camagüey, after passing through other dependencies. Marcano has revealed that in the next few days he will be sent to another, less severe.
“My son participated voluntarily and spontaneously in the demonstrations, nobody incited him. It is very sad what we relatives are experiencing just because our children participated in demonstrations peacefully, which were necessary,” he said in Madrid.
Marcano requested “international support” for the families and mothers of the prisoners, and reproached “the national organizations” for refusing to listen to those affected. In particular, she referred to the Federation of Cuban Women, which “has not been sensitized” to the mothers of prisoners, while in other countries they are “worrying and taking care” of them.
“They are doing this job of listening to us and supporting us, we don’t have this on the island,” he added.
Despite the harassment that he claims to suffer from the government, Marcano assures that he will not give up for his son, with whom he was able to speak upon his return to Cuba, as he revealed to Marti News. “Mom, I’m very proud of you, right? escape“, Told him.
The woman had also spared no words of praise for her son and those who, like him, took to the streets after understanding “reality.” “They are young, perhaps they have innovative ideas that will lead us to live in a better world and make their dreams come true. They have made us what we are today, we woke up, we know reality, we no longer believe what was in the books of text”.
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