MEXICO CITY.- According to the Cubalex legal advice center, last July, 183 incidents of repression were registered in Cuba. Of these, 3.28% affected citizens in a general way, while 96.72% affected only members of civil society. That is to say, the harassment in the country tends to be concentrated against people who in some way dissent or articulate outside what is allowed by the government.
The legal center, through daily monitoring carried out on social networks, press media as well as internal messages it receives, registered 218 victims, 89 women and 129 men. The data is available in a report that has not yet been published.
Most of the incidents of repression identified (62%) are acts regulated by legal norms and used by State agents as tools for harassment. For example, the use of legal figures such as citations, charges, interrogations, fines, among others, is routine. However, the organization highlights that 38% were non-legislated practices of the agents, some of which may constitute torture or ill-treatment techniques.
These incidents were generally divided into three main groups according to their characteristics: incidents that affected personal freedom (40.14%). In second place is the invasion of privacy (32.65%). At least 60 victims suffered invasion of their private and family life. Finally, 13.61% of the events were classified as serious human rights violations. The other acts (with less repetition) that appear in the report are criminal or administrative proceedings and incidents against personal security or the exercise of civil rights.
Surveillance or monitoring operations are the most repeated specific incident. During the month, 78 repressive events of this type were identified. Of these, 46 occurred in Havana, 10 in Pinar del Río, six in Villa Clara; and three in Matanzas, Sancti Spíritus and Camagüey.
On the other hand, in Mayabeque and Artemisa two occurred; and one in Holguín, Las Tunas and Cienfuegos. Arrest or house arrest (71), threat or coercion (53), transfer (36), and arbitrary detention (34), among others, were also frequently recorded.
As 9/11 approached, repression increased
As of July 9, the line of repression that had remained stable began to grow, as revealed by the NGO’s monitoring. The day where the most repressive acts were recorded was precisely the day before to the anniversary of the massive protests in Cuba. On July 10, 43 events of this nature were recorded, affecting 53 victims, of whom 27 were women and 26 men.
The record then decreased on the 12th. Overall, there were six events per day in the month of July; however, between days 9 and 12, 98 acts of harassment were identified. This represents 52.13% of the total.
Incidents were reported in 13 of the 15 provinces and one extraterritorial or cross-border act of harassment. Within the national territory, Havana was the province where repressive acts were monitored the most (102). The capital was followed by Pinar del Río (15), Villa Clara (14) and Camagüey (10). In total, acts of harassment were identified in 44 of the 169 municipalities on the island.
Havana continued to be the province where the most victims of the repression were counted, with 62, of them, 32 women and 30 men, followed by Matanzas with 14 victims and Camagüey with 10.
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