The protests of last July and the call for 15N have left the Cuban regime nervous. It is enough for a group of activists to propose a demonstration for the ruling party to redouble the police presence, mount a fair in the place and mobilize dozens of members of the State Security. Yes, in addition, the event is planned for Human Rights Day, the unease of the Government multiplies.
With a day in advance, from this Thursday several Havana parks are taken over by students who do not understand very well what they commemorate. In the squares you can see improvised tents with gastronomic offers and revolutionary music at full volume. The calculated event will last until December 10 to cover any possible act of civic vindication.
“The teacher told us that today and tomorrow we had to counteract the possible marches in the parks,” says Joan, a student who is in the eighth grade at a basic high school in Centro Habana. “They gave us an early dismissal so we could attend the activities.”
Although at first the teacher explained to Joan and her classmates that they were going to carry out “exploration and camping activities, as they do on camping trips”, what Joan and her classmates found in La Normal park, in Manglar Street, was “a tent and music recorded at full volume.”
“They were also setting up an improvised stage in which someone will surely play later,” explained the 14-year-old, who also noted the insistence of the directors of his educational center to remain in place. “Those of us who had mobile phones started playing soccer and connecting to the Wi-Fi network, until I got tired and went home sneakily.”
The same scene is repeated in other parks in the capital, where a strong presence of young people dressed in school uniforms of various teachings can be observed. “There is a circus in Trillo park today,” he told 14ymedio an elderly neighbor from Centro Habana. “They tell me that in Central Park and the one in charge of the Design Institute, there have also been tents since yesterday with sales of bread and other lost products, plus the characteristic show with revolutionary background music,” he said.
In 1998, a similar mobilization of high school students and members of the Union of Young Communists to congregate in Butari Park, in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton, ended with them attacking several activists who had chosen the place for a peaceful demonstration during the day for Human Rights.
The incident included blows against the cameras of the foreign press, one of which was significantly damaged, one of the correspondents’ microphones was stolen by the mob and several dissidents were detained the days before and during December 10 itself, after that the opposition Óscar Elías Biscet launched the call to march in that square
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