Erlis Sierra was one of the residents who, after the protests, raised dissatisfaction during a meeting with provincial authorities.
LIMA, Peru – The Cuban regime began repressive raids this weekend after the peaceful protests that occurred last Thursday night in the town of Baire, Contramaestre municipality, Santiago de Cuba.
The young doctor Erlis Sierra was arrested and taken to the Contramaestre police unit this Saturday, before his transfer to Operations in the city of Santiago de Cuba. Another resident identified as Humberto Nieto Sierra was also arrested in Baire.
According to declarations of Ania Lopez Sierra, the doctor’s mother, in the early hours of October 18, two agents from the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) showed up at her home without a summons and took her son with the sole objective of “talking to him.”
While he was waiting for his statements to be taken, a young man who knew Erlis Sierra approached Ania to tell her that he had been taken out in handcuffs from the back of the police unit along with the other detainee.
“They know him here in Contramaestre for being what he is: a doctor who helps the people save lives. Because when there are no resources here he cares for them in their homes,” said the mother.
After asking for information about his son, a PNR officer simply informed him that he had been transferred to the Operations Unit in the provincial capital.
“I’m desperate, I don’t know anything about him (…) He didn’t touch the cauldron. They asked for the floor, the people’s concerns, and several people like him gave their opinions,” highlighted Ania Lopez Sierra.
The inhabitants of Baire they took to the streets on Thursday night to protest against prolonged blackouts, the lack of drinking water and the deterioration of living conditions in the town.
In the numerous videos spread on social networks, neighbors can be seen hitting cauldrons and slogans such as “Freedom!” and “We are not afraid!”
On the day after the demonstrations, the territory’s authorities met with some of the citizens, including Erlis Sierra, who in a respectful and assertive tone explained the main dissatisfactions in the town.
One of the main problems reported by the young doctor was the existing epidemiological crisis in Baire, marked by the lack of fumigation and anti-bectoral actions by health managers.
“I am asking for my rights, the right of all my people who are feeling and suffering. Right now they came and fumigated a small house or two. Here everyone knows that if you fumigate two houses and not 40, nothing happens,” the young man argued.
Although the Cuban doctor alerted the authorities that they needed answers and not retaliation after the protests, on the morning of October 18 he was arrested along with Humberto Nieto Sierra.
What happened in Baire?
The protest began around 7:40 p.m., according to reports from residents cited by the independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, who was one of the first to report the incident.
“Tonight, around 7:40 pm, the people of Baire in the Contramaestre Municipality broke the silence and took to the streets to the sound of cauldrons and shouts of protest,” Mayeta wrote in your Facebook page.
According to the report, the demonstrations began in the La Salada, El Transformador and Avicinia neighborhoods, where dozens of people spontaneously joined together to demand responses to the economic crisis, power outages and lack of food.
“People came out tired, with their cauldrons, shouting. They arrived at the park, where the police and State Security were already there with motorcycles and the fire truck,” said a neighbor who asked to remain anonymous.
During the first minutes of the protest, Internet access was cut off throughout the municipality, a common measure by the regime to prevent the dissemination of images and testimonies. The connection was reestablished about 30 minutes later, allowing several residents to document part of what happened.
The protesters avoided taking the main road, moving through interior streets to evade police checkpoints. They walked along Avenida 8, shouted in front of the Police unit—where the president of the Popular Council lives—and continued along Avenida Central (Avenida 4) to the bust of José Martí, in the Central Park of Baire.
After midnight, the area remained under heavy police surveillance. Patrols, uniformed agents and plainclothes officers surrounded the park and its surroundings, while neighbors observed the repressive deployment from their homes.
These demonstrations are not an isolated event. Since the historic 11J protests in Cuba, similar episodes have become frequent in different provinces of the country, driven by crippling blackouts, food shortages and the general deterioration of living conditions, despite the strong repressive presence deployed by the regime.
