HAVANA, Cuba. – On December 5, the Cuban intellectual José Gabriel Barrenechea Chávez received his first family visit since he was sent to the La Pendiente prison in Villa Clara. In this way, it emerged that his state of health continues to deteriorate, to the point that those who have seen him express fear for his life, according to the Cuban pastor. Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso.
In interview for CubaNetthe reverend specified that “José Gabriel is very thin. Obviously he was on a hunger strike from which he has not even been able to recover.” His information comes from people whose identity he cannot reveal, for security reasons, but who “have attested to the situation” and are very concerned about the writer’s life.
“He is very restless, very worried, but, more than for himself, for his mother, who is a sick old woman to whom he practically had to do everything. Now she has her son in prison and, more than helping her, he is a cause of concern for her,” added the interviewee, who is the founder and coordinator of the Patmos Institute.
It was the second opportunity, in almost a month, that the family was able to visit him since his arrest on November 8, for participating in the peaceful protests that took place in Encrucijadawhere he resides. The Prosecutor’s Office intends to prosecute him for the alleged crime of “sedition”, alleging that he incited protesters to take to the streets.
However, in a letter sent from prison the journalist described that the protest was spontaneous, massive and peaceful, and that “it had no other intention than to demand the restoration of the electrical current, after 45 hours without it.”
In the text, he also clarifies that during the demonstration he limited himself “to maintaining order by avoiding any friction between protesters and authorities, of which they themselves, if they are not lying to the truth, will be able to attest.” At the same time, he denounced that his arrest responds to a strategy by the regime to silence his criticism.
“In my case, I am kept locked up to silence a critic, in his analyzes and publications, of the Government’s management, and of the real possibilities of the Cuban sociopolitical system to get the country out of the crisis in which it is mired,” he says. in the letter.
“He is a citizen with an enormous concept of civility, he would be the last person in the world who would resort to violence. He wants the changes for Cuba through peaceful means, through non-violence,” stressed Lleonart Barroso. “We invite Cubans to raise their voices for Barrenechea and for all the thousands of Cuban political prisoners, because each one of them is important,” added the Christian leader.
Last month, nine days after his arrest, some 200 activists, journalists and politicians from Cuba and other countries They signed a letter to demand the release of the intellectualjust when he was carrying out a hunger strike.
In 2019, Barrenechea discovered that he was “regulated,” a euphemism used by the regime to prohibit independent journalists, opposition activists, and critics in general from leaving the country. The writer is also not allowed to work in Cuba.
From his books, Tubular Bells and other stories (Neo Club Editions); cUba, an island between apathy and the Revolutionand José Antonio Saco runs out of argumentsless than 10 specimens have managed to evade the surveillance of the Republic’s Customs and enter the country.
