The Cuban historian Alina Bárbara López Hernández, who has been peacefully demonstrating since April on the 18th of each month in the Parque de la Libertad in the city of Matanzas, is regulated, that is, they are prohibited from leaving the Island.
In a post posted this fridaythe professor explained that she learned that she was “regulated for reasons of public interest” when requesting a new passport, since hers had just expired, to attend an event organized by the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy in the United States, at the which I had already attended in 2017.
“I do not know what that phrase means, but I will not admit an arbitrariness that contradicts the Constitution of the Republic itself, which in its article 52 establishes freedom of movement for citizens, and although it clarifies that there may be exceptions, I do not consider myself described in any of them”, asserts López Hernández in his text.
The professor reports: “I will wait all next week for the instance that decided to regulate me to contact me and inform me that such arbitrariness was reversed.” In addition, she assures that she is not going to knock on “any door, present any complaint or try to negotiate with anyone.”
“I’d rather go to prison than be subjected. We’ll see if those who decide these violations are willing to take the risk of depriving me of my liberty”
After that time, he continues, he will begin to exercise “every week” his “right to peaceful demonstration, this time carrying a sign that will indicate the reasons for my action.” And he concludes: “I am fully aware of the consequences that this may have. I will also be willing to assume them. I would rather go to prison than be subjected. We will see if those who decide on these violations are willing to take the risk of depriving me of my liberty.”
On April 6, López Hernández was detained for several hours by State Security after protesting the arrest of the writer Jorge Fernández Era in the same Parque de la Libertad.
After being released, she told a long post on facebook the details of the arbitrary detention, for exercising “a constitutional right in a country without political rights”, and announced that every day 18 he would demonstrate peacefully.
Their requests would be four: “a democratically elected National Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution applicable in all its parts”, “that the State not ignore the critical situation of the elderly, retirees, pensioners and families who are in extreme poverty”, “freedom for political prisoners without compulsory exile” and “cessation of harassment of people who exercise their freedom of expression.”
On the last occasion, last mayreported that to counter their action, the authorities organized “a political act” that began “as soon as they saw me arrive”: “Microphones, amplification equipment, flags, loud music and groups of State Security officials and agents, always identifiable “.
With the ban on renewing her passport, the historian joins the list of Cubans who cannot leave their country for dissenting from the regime or wanting to practice their profession independently
The teacher began to deserve attention by State Security at the same time as the young artists grouped in the event The worst generation censored last october. López Hernández was going to preface a book that would bear the same title and that the regime also prevented from carrying out.
She herself denounced the harassment, but stayed on social networks. After receiving several requests from the political police to be interrogated, she presented before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Matanzas a “formal complaint and annulment action against the official citations”. The teacher achieved, with this, that the State Security cancel the summons.
Three months later, inspired by the action from Matanzas, Jorge Fernández Era filed a similar claimannulment for violation of the Criminal Procedure Law, after receiving a summons from the political police, and did not attend the meeting.
The writer recounted at that moment that the officer who approached him expressly reminded him not to be inspired by the case of Alina Bárbara López Hernández, warning him that “Matanzas is not Havana.”
Banned from renewing her passport, the historian joins the list of Cubans who they cannot leave their country for dissenting from the regime or wanting to practice their profession independently. Among them, the journalists of this newspaper Reinaldo Escobar and Miriam Celaya, the analyst Julio Aleaga Pesant, the activist Boris González or the director of The Cuban Hour, Henry Constantin.
Many others, who had also been regulated, They managed to leave the island on the condition of not returning. State Security only lifted the ban on foreign travel after learning of the decision to emigrate by these people, subjected to pressure, police summons and surveillance fences at their own homes.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for accompanying us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
