Carolina Barrero became this Thursday the last case, to date, of activists forced into exile. The art historian traveled to Madrid this Thursday after being informed by State Security that she had 48 hours to leave the island, as she herself has told on her Facebook profile.
The activist was arrested on the 31st when she was protesting in front of the Diez de Octubre Municipal Court in Havana, where the trial of 33 July 11 protesters accused of sedition is being held. “They let me know that, if I didn’t do it, the detained mothers and the activists who accompanied them would be indicted for the crime of public disorder,” she explains, referring to the hours in which she was held.
“They let me know that, if I didn’t do it, the detained mothers and the activists who accompanied them would be indicted for the crime of public disorder”
“For some it would be the beginning of an investigation process, a warning that tried to break the will. For others, it was the end. With a five-year prosecutor petition and awaiting trial for his participation in the July 11 protests, Daniela Rojo would go to the Guatao prison, from which she would hardly leave until after serving her sentence. This time I knew they would do it, “he says.
In addition, the historian, who has been part of the efforts being made for the release of Maykel Castillo osorbwith health problems in the Kilo 5 and a half prison in Pinar del Río, affirms that they conditioned the viability of his release to her forced exile.
“I left today with the certainty that I will return. The impossibility of returning to Cuba can no longer be an option, neither in reality nor in thought,” he argues.
Barrero has residence in Spain, but in the last two years she has remained in Cuba actively participating in the San Isidro Movement led by Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, which has led her to be arrested on numerous occasions and summoned by State Security. .
In early 2021, the political police warned her that she could be committing a crime of “secrecy of printed matter”, for which they urged her to return to Spain.
“State Security accuses me of this printed image. It is a Martí made of stars, with the stroke of tenderness and dream. There is not a hint of offense in that drawing, it is all respect and illusion,” he said in relation to that fact for which he was about to have to leave Cuba.
The case was filed a month later, but Barrero has not abandoned an activism that has finally led her to opt for forced exile, joining a list that does not stop growing.
The case was filed a month later, but Barrero has not abandoned an activism that has finally led her to opt for forced exile, joining a list that does not stop growing.
Among the most recent cases are the artist Hamlet Lavastida and the poet Katherine Bisquetin Poland since September, the youtuber Ruhama Fernandez, in Miami since October, the playwright Yunior Garcia Aguilera in Madridthe rapper Denis Solis in Serbia since November and the journalists Esteban Rodríguez and Héctor Luis Valdés, in El Salvador this Januaryfrom where they undertook a trip to the United States through Mexico.
“For the Cuba that suffers, for the mothers who suffer, the first word, all my gestures, the deep conviction that justice and truth will prevail,” Barrero said goodbye in that last message, published while flying into exile in Spain.
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