A few days before the first anniversary of July 11, doctor Alexander Pupo Casas, who suffered harassment and lost his job because of his outspoken stance against the Cuban regime, tells 14ymedio: “As I see it, there will not be another one because that 11J, 12J and 13J the people came out civilly and peacefully and received repression, blows and jail for it.”
The next demonstration, considers the doctor originally from Holguín, does not believe that it will be “neither peaceful nor civic.” “There will be deaths and injuries on both sides, it will be a shame.”
Pupo, who shares with his colleague Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre the journey to reach the United States, uploaded a video to facebook wall recorded inside the trunk of a vehicle where it is crowded together with Haitian, Bangladeshi, African, Venezuelan, Chinese and Russian migrants.
“Look where we had to travel. Gentlemen, this is incredible, but nothing, here we are, in the trunk of a bus,” he is heard saying while panning in which more people are observed. “And there were those who said that we were financed, that we were well paid by the CIA.”
The doctor tells 14ymedio that they have had “a few days of calamities but right now we are safe”. Pupo reserved his location for a security issue “since the State Security Directorate (DSE) has tried to find our location, God knows with what intention.”
Pupo and Figueredo have had to live, like thousands of Cubans who leave the Island, the most difficult emigration: without visas, without the support of diplomats, practically without money. “Our entire journey has been like illegals. We have been detained by the police, they have taken money from us and left us dumped in the middle of nowhere. We have had bad times.”
“They crossed the Darién jungle, they faced the Panamanian guard, we were sent to a UN ‘concentration camp’ in Panama, we have been denied medical assistance when we have needed it. In short, we had to face the dark side of emigration alone”.
In May, Figueredo assured that on this journey “a part of him died in the jungle of Darién seeing lost children, drowned and dead people and without being able to do anything just watch and continue”.
The doctor points out that in the group in which they were traveling “unfortunately we had seven or eight deaths.” To enter that area that extends along the border between Panama and Colombia, not only “you have to be physically and mentally prepared, but luck also plays a crucial role in getting out of there. No one gets out unscathed.”
According to official figures from the National Migration Service (SNM) of Panama, until last March: a total of 13,425 irregular migrants crossed the Darién, including 4,257 from Venezuela, 1,589 from Haiti, 1,164 from Senegal and 1,065 from Cuba.
Pupo and Figueredo hope to reach the United States in a month and announced that they will notify the press when they are “at the border.”
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