LIMA, Peru – Cuban-American congressmen Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez, representatives of the 26th and 28th districts of Florida respectively, demanded the release of the young people belonging to the El4tico audiovisual project, arrested by the Castro regime last Friday.
“This is what the corrupt, cruel and murderous dictatorship does in Cuba: it imprisons its own citizens simply for expressing their opinions. Freedom of expression should never be a crime!” reported in X (formerly Twitter) Díaz-Balart.
Shortly after, the congressman shared a publication from the United States Embassy in Cuba that requested the release of the members of El4tico. The same statement from the diplomatic headquarters was reposted by Carlos Giménez.
“From the United States Congress we demand the immediate freedom of these brave young people who are now political prisoners simply for expressing themselves on social networks. Enough is enough! The change is now!” Giménez stressed.
Who are the young people detained at El4tico?
The NGO Justicia 11J denounced andLast Friday the arbitrary arrest of the young Kamil Zayas, a member of the independent audiovisual project El4tico, after a raid carried out by State Security agents in the house where the contents of the project are produced.
According to the complaint published by Justicia 11J on Facebook, the operation included the invasion of security forces with a “search warrant” in the property that functions as a recording set. At the time of publication, Zayas’ whereabouts were unknown. Relatives and friends were trying to obtain official information about his situation.
The organization also warned that Ernesto Medina and his wife Doris Santiesteban, also members of El4tico, are at risk “in the face of the repressive deployment” associated with the reported operation.
In its publication, Justicia 11J describes El4tico as “a dissident space within Cuba” that has more than 50,000 followers on Instagram. According to the NGO, from a room in the province of Holguín, the members of the project carry out critical social and political analyzes aimed directly at power.
As of the afternoon of this February 7, the young people have not been released. Anticipating his arbitrary arrest, Kamil Zayas left a statement that was already published on social networks and in which he defends his position and denounces the repressive actions of the Castro dictatorship.
«If you are seeing or reading this, it is because they finally found a way to trap me, to try to put the temporary gag on me. It is necessary to know that I am not arrested for stealing, for assault, for trafficking or for any common crime. “They arrest me for the only “crime” that a dictatorship does not tolerate: daring to look straight and say out loud what we all notice: its blunders, its chronic inefficiencies, its systematic injustices and the oppression that crushes the dignity of an entire people,” Zayas highlighted.
