The family of Andy García Lorenzo, one of the prisoners for the July 11 demonstrations in Santa Clara, delivered this wednesday a letter addressed to the Governor of Villa Clara, Alberto López Díaz, to denounce the “damages and losses” that the “systematic harassment” to which she is being subjected is causing them.
Signed by Roxana García Lorenzo, Andy’s sister, his partner, Jonatán López Alonso, and his parents, Pedro Osvaldo López Mesa and Yenia Alonso Melgarejo, the letter, to which he had access 14ymedio, it says it is based on the “right to complain” enshrined in article 61 of the Constitution “and as a preliminary step in the face of a possible lawsuit and subsequent access to competent human rights organizations.”
The relatives assure that Andy García is “a peaceful protester” of the 11J protests and that he is deprived of liberty due to the “combat order” issued by Miguel Díaz-Canel. “It is in our ethical principles as well as in the exercise of freedom of expression, a human, universal and inalienable right, to defend it and denounce violations against it,” they say in the text.
“It is in our ethical principles as well as in the exercise of freedom of expression, a human, universal and inalienable right, to defend it and denounce violations”
In their letter, they complain to Governor López Díaz that they are being victims of “harassment by the operational officers of Section 21 of the General Directorate of Counter-Intelligence.” As an example they cite the most recent altercation: be arrested on January 14 by an agent when they were going “peacefully” to the headquarters of the People’s Provincial Court of Villa Clara, where Andy García and other defendants were being tried.
“It happens that we were intercepted on public roads by an operational officer, dressed in civilian clothes and without identifying himself, on his motorcycle license plate B58394,” they detail, “who without an arrest warrant and without informing the reasons for the arrest made us get off the means of transport and lead us to a patrol car of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), which took us to the Provincial Criminal Processing Unit”.
There, they continue, they were about ten hours and were “coercively interrogated, without recording equipment and without legal representation.” Roxana García, Jonatán López and Pedro López were fined 3,000 pesos under Decree Law 370 of 2018, known as the “scourge law.” The first two, in addition, and by the same rule, had their mobile phones confiscated.
About this they will present “the claims before the competent authority”, assures the family of Andy García, who asserts that the harassment by the State Security “is causing us serious damage, harm and affecting our mental health.”
As reported by Roxana Garcia on your Facebook wall, the authorities received the letter assuring that they would give an answer.
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