Madrid/Zoila Chávez is almost 85 years old and lives in a house of tables in crossroads, a town in the Cuban province of Villa Clara. It has circulatory problems, legs with sores and walks with difficulty. He took care of her son, José Gabriel Barrenechea. But the regime police arrested him in November and Zoila has been in the helplessness for five months.
Training physicist, writer by vocation, Barrenechea published his reflections in independent media and was in the sight of the regime. They took him to protest, along with his neighbors, for the endless blackouts that sharpens the hardships of the Cubans. It was a peaceful march, like so many others that there were throughout the country. But Miguel Díaz-Canel already said, president of a stuck belly, who will not tolerate anyone to break “citizen tranquility.”
In the prison of the slope, Barrenechea expects judgment for “propaganda against the constitutional order”, which can mean the death penalty
In the prison of the slope, Barrenechea expects judgment for “propaganda against the constitutional order”, which can be the death penalty. Meanwhile, Zoila heats water in a coal stove, walks holding the walls and fantasizes with an impossible trip there, to ask them to return the son. “It’s the only thing I have.” Tells it in a video broadcast on the web Cubanet. It is a heartbreaking monologue, which flows between reflections, prayers and a sad song. “Every night I ask God and the Virgin to leave me dawn. I just want to see Gabriel enter the door.”
Not far from there, Yadiel Hernández, 33 years old, designer, graduated in theological studies and independent reporter, is in preventive detention in the fearsome combined of the south. He had disappeared since his arrest in January, when he investigated for the Independent Digital 14ymedio Drug trafficking at a Matanzas school. The regime does not worry so much the growing consumption of narcotics on the island that it is talk about it. It is only known that he was interrogated for weeks for the security of the State and that they will judge him for the same crime as Barrenechea.
The repression does not yield a millimeter in Cuba, where, since 2024, an unusual amount of prisoners is dying. Nor in Venezuela. Not in Nicaragua. It must be remembered now that geopolitical shakes have taken these radar countries. In this week of media promotion of Rodríguez Zapatero, a sinister correveidile of dictators, it is essential to give voice to those who fight them.
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Drafting Note: This text It was originally published in The world and reproduces with the permission of the author.
