Havana Cuba. — Cuban Iván Hernández Mora, from the province of Artemisa, told CubaNet the repression of which he was a victim along with his son as a result of the anti-government protests of the July 11, 2021 (J11).
The man, a resident of the province of Artemisa, told this newspaper details of what happened during the demonstrations. That day, upon arriving at the police station in his municipality, the so-called “black berets” brutally attacked the protesting citizens, including his son, Iván Hernández Troya, who was arrested in the midst of the confusion.
Father and son were among the citizens who took to the streets demanding freedom. Hernández Mora points out that upon verifying the boy’s firm determination to protest, he decided to accompany him, worried about his safety.
Hernández Mora, 49, points out that when they arrived at the police station in the municipality of Artemisa, the “black berets” attacked the protesters.
The father remained outside the station trying to locate his son, but the young man’s cell phone seemed to be off.
Iván Hernández Mora explains that a man dressed in civilian clothes approached him and asked him what he was doing there, to which he replied that he was trying to locate his son or find out what had become of him. The individual assured him that he would keep calling, that he would find out at the station.
Later, another individual also dressed in civilian clothes arrived, who, without identifying himself, told him that he could not be there and brutally beat him, kicked him in the chest, applied an immobilization key and had him locked up in a cell in the station. . Hernández Mora details that the motorcycle he was traveling on, which was borrowed, was left abandoned on the street.
Hernández Mora is diabetic, hypertensive and suffers from ischemic cardiomegaly and chronic cardiac arrhythmia. The aggression suffered caused an increase in blood pressure. He claims that he spent 40 minutes asking the agents to help him recover the motorcycle, to which they replied that it was not their problem and that he had asked for it. A while later he went to see the jailer, who took him to a doctor to examine him.
Subsequently, the same individual who had approached him earlier, who was none other than the head of the MININT of Artemisa, an officer who identifies himself as Ernesto and who, as he describes, is nicknamed “the boogeyman,” asked Iván what did there. He replied that he should explain it to him, that he had promised to find out from his son.
Officer Ernesto told the father to go quietly and come back at 10 p.m. to take care of the matter. Iván returned, but accompanied by his family, his wife and children, plus a woman who witnessed the beating.
Once in the office, the officer made a pantomime of sending for three men so that Iván could identify them, but none was the aggressor. Iván himself went to look for some young people (apparently from military service) who were collaborating with the repressors and who had witnessed the beating, but they claimed not to know the culprit.
Iván Hernández Mora emphasizes that he protested when he realized that officer Ernesto had wasted his time and that he still did not know the whereabouts of his son. The agent told him to go quietly, that his son would surely be released immediately because he had not done anything, and even recommended that he have a transport ready to pick him up because they would surely release him at any moment, and that he give him his number. to let you know right away.
Iván adds that he thus spent five days trying to find out the whereabouts of his son, but he only received the same answer: “They will release him at any moment.” Until finally they told him that the young man was in an investigation center of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) similar to the Criminal Investigation and Operations Division of 100 and Aldabó, but located on the Cuatro Caminos highway, in Guanajay (15 km of Artemis). He left there at seven at night. Upon arrival, a guard told him that his son was there but that he couldn’t see him or leave him a toilet because the days of attention to the population were Tuesdays and it was already Friday. Iván Hernández confesses that when he left there, alone, around one in the morning, he felt very discouraged.
The following Tuesday she was allowed to leave the bathroom but not to see her son. Nor the next five days. Later they told him that the young man had been admitted to the Dr. Salvador Allende Clinical Surgical Teaching Hospital (La Covadonga), in Havana, infected with COVID-19 and they gave him the hospital number. When he called, a rather rude telephone operator informed him that he would only be attended to if he arrived before five in the afternoon. However, just before leaving for the hospital, they called him to tell him that his son had already been taken out of there and they did not know where they had taken him.
The father continues narrating that he returned to the Guanajay Technician and requested an interview with the head of the place, an officer identified as Lieutenant Colonel Alexei. He asked for the number to notify him when he located the young man because, as he assured him, he did not know where they had transferred him either. But he didn’t call him. The next day, the father returned to the place and was informed that his son had been transferred to the Guanajay prison.
Iván Hernández Mora works as a clerk in a private cafeteria. He recounts disconsolate and horrified that when he was finally able to see his son, approximately three months later, the boy was considerably disfigured with marks of having been brutally beaten, swollen and black-eyed.
Receive information from CubaNet on your cell phone through WhatsApp. Send us a message with the word “CUBA” on the phone +1 (786) 316-2072, You can also subscribe to our electronic newsletter by giving click here.
