HAVANA, Cuba.- The case of the sisters Angélica and María Cristina Garrido is one of those that best reflects the cruelty of the Cuban regime. Both women were arrested for having participated in the social outbreak of July 11, 2021 (11J), and sentenced to three and seven years of imprisonment respectively, for the alleged crimes of attack, public disorder and disobedience.
During the eighteen months that they have been imprisoned, María Cristina received a brutal beating by Castro’s henchmen. Angelica suffered a stroke that caused a temporary paralysis in half of her body; she has endured long confinements in punishment cells, where she was exposed to lice infestation and scabies. The two joined in a hunger strike and then decided to stay “planted” in refusal to wear the clothing of common prisoners and consume the food that they are given in prison. They have been denied visits by their relatives, they have suffered threats and degrading treatment, and the cruelty of the dictatorship has penetrated to the very heart of their homes.
Last December, shortly after the death of their father, the sisters they lost their mom who died demanding the freedom of his daughters. The cruelty with which they gave Angélica the news will forever reverberate in her memory: “Get up and get dressed because your mother died,” one of her jailers told her according to the post published by Luis Rodríguez Pérez, Angélica’s husband, who regularly publishes updates on the ordeal of the sisters in prison.
About the most recent visit to the prisonduring which both were able to see and hug their children, Rodríguez Pérez emphasized that the brutality of the dictatorship in locking up Angélica and María Cristina had saddened their parents.
“They were orphaned. Today it is their children who bring their bread to their bars, ”she says, and also recognizes the courage, maturity and solidarity of the boys when they tell their mothers that many people in Cuba admire and love them.
Angélica and María Cristina Garrido are among the approximately 122 women who remain imprisoned for political reasons, many as a result of the massive protests of 9/11.
