Havana/The anthropologist and activist Jenny Pantoja was arrested after leaving her home this Saturday and released hours later. The arrest coincided with the date on which the activist usually demonstrates, the 18th of each month, in solidarity with professor Alina Bárbara López and to ask for political changes on the Island, but this time, she claims, she had gone out to “buy provisions.”
After his release, Pantoja posted on Facebook what happened despite the fact that she has been warned on several occasions not to publish her run-ins with State Security on social networks. “This is the only way that you and the Cuban misgovernment have left so that Cubans can make complaints and complain. There is no other option,” he protested in his publication.
As he explained, for a year and nine months he has been demonstrating monthly for a “democratically elected National Constituent Assembly”, “the critical situation of the elderly, retirees, pensioners and families who are in extreme poverty”, the “immediate freedom for political prisoners”. Cubans” and the “cessation of harassment of people who exercise their freedom of expression.” However, “since I had the house under surveillance and since I know that they are trying to create another case for me, I decided to hold the demonstration on another day as I have also done other times,” Pantoja clarified.
She left her house to buy food at a fair near her home, but she was still “violently” detained by patrol 019 that was monitoring her that day. After being released hours later, the coordinator of the Pro Amnesty Committee for political prisoners in Cuba continued with the purchases, but closely monitored by political police agents.
The anthropologist also reported harassment of neighbors and people who try to approach her house.
The anthropologist also reported harassment of neighbors and people who try to approach her house. “One of the clients for whom my husband made a locksmith repair came to look for his belongings already fixed and Ariel – the agent in charge of Pantoja – called him. I don’t know what he told you but the man, our neighbor, left without his lock fixed,” laments the activist.
“The people who come to my house do not have home restrictions, therefore they can move freely and look for one of the few jobs that my husband had done today,” she added.
The case of Pantoja, which was expelled from the University of Medical Sciences of Havana last July and harassed on countless occasions for her political position, contrasts with the release of several dozen political prisoners in the last week, which the regime has shown as a magnanimous act.
As of Saturday afternoon, according to the registry of the Cuban Human Rights Observatory, some 88 political prisoners had been released. This Sunday, the NGO Justicia 11J announced the release from prison of others: Yarelis Mesa Vázquez, Adel de la Torre, Yoennis Domínguez de la Rosa, Santiago Vázquez León, José Antonio Gómez León and Rolando López Rodríguez.
As of Saturday afternoon, according to the registry of the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, some 88 political prisoners had been released.
The academic has been arrested on more than one occasion, although the arrest he suffered last June along with teacher Alina Bárbara López, he was one of the most aggressive. On that occasion, the anthropologist reported that both had been beaten by political police agents.
Pantoja is an experienced Cuban historian and researcher, as well as an activist, with master’s studies in the area of Social and Philosophical Sciences, specialized in religious issues.
In the teaching field, she has had extensive work in high school and higher education, becoming an adjunct professor at the University of Havana in the discipline of Anthropology. At the same time, he has taught postgraduate courses and given lectures as part of his time at institutions such as the Cuban Institute of Anthropology.
