The Caimanera authorities confirmed that the demonstrators detained after the protest last Saturday in that town of Guantanamo they will be brought to trial.
“Acts of this nature that threaten social peace will not go unpunished and the offenders will be brought before the judicial bodies,” he says. a note of the local government, signed by Saimara Llamaré Galano, president of the Assembly of People’s Power of that municipality.
The communication does not specify the number of protesters who are in this situation and ensures that the detainees will be prosecuted “with all constitutional guarantees and respect for their rights.”
Last Saturday, residents of Caimanera, the Cuban municipality closest to the Guantánamo naval base, publicly demonstrated through the streets of that town and in front of government offices.
The protest, according to what authorities and official media said at the time, was due to “dissatisfaction and needs of the population that have not been systematically addressed and others that need to be addressed.”
The event quickly went viral on the networks and was reported and shared by foreign and alternative media.
During the protest there was an Internet outage in Cuba that lasted several hours, according to reports from numerous users.
In the videos posted on the networks, you can see numerous people walking and demonstrating publicly, while many filmed what was happening. Subsequent videos show arrests and repressive actions against the protesters.
Regarding the facts, the president of the Municipal Assembly of Caimanera reiterates the official version, according to which “several people in a state of intoxication (…) tried to disturb the public tranquility.”
I will call Galano affirms that “at the call of the population, authorities of the territory went to the place with the aim of addressing the situation.”
“The aforementioned people evaded civilized dialogue to present their claims and acted with the manifest intention of disturbing public order, for which reason the corresponding police action was required,” he adds, without providing further details about what happened.
The official commented that “the municipal authorities, as public servants, have the responsibility of maintaining a permanent dialogue with the population” and denounced “the campaign orchestrated from abroad” as a result of the protest.
Cuba lived almost two years ago, in July 2021the largest anti-government protests in decades, in the midst of an economic crisis exacerbated by the pandemic.
Hundreds of protesters were arrested and sentenced to heavy penalties for the events, considered by the government as acts of “vandalism” and “sedition”, and part of a “regime change operation” encouraged from the United States.
The trials against the 9/11 protesters in Cuba have been carried out since the end of 2021 and their conduct has not been without controversy.
Relatives of the convicted, opposition activists and NGOs have criticized these processes, alleging a lack of guarantees, fabrication of evidence and high sentences.
Meanwhile, the Cuban Supreme Court and other authorities on the island assure that due process has been observed and judicial guarantees have been respected in all the cases opened by these demonstrations.