MEXICO CITY, Mexico. — On the afternoon of June 13, Amelia Calzadilla received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number threatening her with death and hurling insults at her. Amelia is the mother of three children who exploded on social networks against inefficient government management and whose videos have gone viral.
“Death bitch. Recharge bitch ”, said the text sent by the number +56 938743223, a prefix that coincides with that of Chile. The young mother is not sure who is behind these attacks, whether they actually come from South America or are sent from another place using a SIM from that country.
“I say things as they are, but I can’t accuse anyone without evidence,” he told CubaNet Amelia, currently convalescing from a flu that keeps her feverish.
A day before, that same number had written to her: “Hello Amelia. Damn bitch. Ignorant. The Otaola is going to make you shit. You are the worst shit in the world.”
“My reaction has been to be calm because I know which side is right,” explains Calzadilla. “I am not offended and I stand by my record. I am not an articulated machinery of damage. Nobody finances me, nobody pays me. I’m not going to let myself be scared by some abnormals who don’t know me and talk about me. They are so afraid of addressing the problem that they prefer to kill the messenger.”
Yesterday, June 15, Amelia’s father-in-law denounced in his profile Facebook the threats received, but without detailing their content. Ruy Díaz expressed his concern about the photos that are being shared on networks with the faces of his grandchildren, with which they are exposed.
Regarding the attacks of the false pro-regime profiles on his family, Díaz wrote that he previously considered them to be “private persons, perhaps extremists. Today I have the absolute conviction that they are financed by someone”.
He added that these trolls They are accompanied by “a work team, with researchers, audio technicians.” In addition “they have access to private, banking, immigration and foreign information,” explained Calzadilla’s father-in-law.
Although he didn’t mention it directly, his description matches the smear work done by The Cuban Warrior, a troll operated by State Security that, from anonymity, launches continuous attacks against any social actor that raises its voice in Cuba. In this case, they have gone against the young woman, a graduate of Foreign Languages from the University of Havana, and her husband.
On June 9, Amelia Calzadilla published her first direct in networks, which immediately went viral. One day later, mothers and fathers Cubans joined their demand for better living conditions for their families.
For its part, the State reacted by attacking the young woman. Against her they deployed a smear campaign to try to discredit her message. Without anything really negative to say against Amelia, false profiles that continually share propaganda, as well as official spokesmen, including Pedro Jorge Velásquez, attacked her.
According to these accounts, Amelia had no right to talk about poverty and shortages in Cuba because in her house there are lamps from the store, a television and her nails are done. Therefore, her life did not seem miserable enough to complain about. She has also been accused, without any proof, of being financed from the United States. A common argument used by the Cuban dictatorship against anyone who points it out.
Under the signature of the physicist Ernesto Estévez, the portal Cubadebate published an article where he assured that the statements of the Cuban mother were “an example of a manual of what is called irritation managementn”.
About these attacks on her and her family, Amelia commented to CubaNet: “In due time, after I receive the colleagues from the electricity company today, I will refer to the whole story and I will respond to the aggressors. My time will come.”
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