Havana/This Monday, the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC) added Yoendri Oconor Reyes, secretary of the Communist Party in Baire, Contramaestre, Santiago de Cuba, to its list of repressors. The leader has been included for leading the arbitrary arrests of residents who participated in the massive protest on October 16, against the prolonged blackouts, food shortages and lack of drinking water that the population has been suffering for weeks.
According to the organization, the official, one day after the demonstration, had promised Erlis Sierra Gomez ─a doctor who participated in the demonstration and had come to talk with the authorities about the problems facing the population─ that no retaliation would be taken against him or any of the protesters.
However, that same night they visited the young pediatrician at the Orlando Pantoja Municipal Hospital to inform him that he had to appear last Saturday at a Contramaestre police station, “under the threat that, if he did not attend, he could be arrested by the Special Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior and charged.”
Sierra was taken out of the police station through the back door and taken to the Versalles criminal operations unit, in Santiago de Cuba.
The FDHC adds that, after attending the appointment, Sierra was taken out of the police station through the back door and taken to the Versalles criminal operations unit, in Santiago de Cuba, where the provincial headquarters of State Security is located. There, he and another detainee, nurse Humberto Nieto Sierra, another of those who spoke with the officials, were interrogated for hours and forced to record a retraction video.
In the film, before Sierra Gómez begins to speak, the voice of an agent is heard giving the indication that the recording has begun. “I hereby inform that I have not been mistreated,” said the doctor in the video, in which he appeared to be reading a script and where he indicated that he was currently in a “dialogue with the relevant institutions.” He also urged that social complaints be channeled through “respectful dialogue so as not to divide our people.”
The young man’s posture in the recording contrasts with the energetic tone with which he detailed, last Friday, in front of officials, the inaction of the institutions in the face of serious problems that affect daily life, such as a blackout that exceeded 30 hours, a shortage of drinking water and an arbovirus outbreak that worsens the local health crisis.
One day after the peaceful mobilization, Contramaestre woke up with police patrols and Ministry of the Interior vehicles surrounding the main streets and parks. Shortly after, other arrests related to the protest were reported, such as those of Osmani Heredia, Yanelis Sierra, Alexander Acosta and Ania Gómez Leiva, mother of Erlis Sierra, who was later released.
Shortly after, other arrests related to the protest were reported, such as those of Osmani Heredia, Yanelis Sierra, Alexander Acosta and Ania Gómez Leiva
The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba warns that “the supposed dialogue between officials and the population is just a trick by the government to distort the rebellious nature of the protests.” He recalled that this tactic was already used during a similar demonstration in the El Güirito neighborhood in GibaraHolguín, on September 13. The municipal secretary of the PCC, Nayla Marieta Leyva Rodríguez, then described what happened as a “respectful exchange” that ended when the residents left in agreement with their explanations. “The next day, 27 Gibareños were arrested, without her lifting a finger to prevent it,” notes the NGO.
Since the historic demonstrations of July 11, 2021, popular unrest has become visible in different provinces of the country, driven by prolonged blackouts, food shortages, and deterioration of basic services. Given this, the regime’s response has been repression and criminalization of those who demand improvements.
In response to these types of acts against the population, the FDHC has an open public registry of State Security agents, judges, prosecutors and also neighborhood informants involved in repressive acts.
