David Martínez Espinosa, professor and activist from Archipelago, he marched this monday alone dressed in white by Cienfuegos to throw a rose into the sea. The act vindicates the lively struggle of the platform, which last Tuesday, a day after the repressed march, urged to maintain peaceful activities of rejection of the regime, including walks like this one and the one that Saily González performed on Thursday in Santa Clara.
“I asked the citizens not to allow ourselves to be taken away from the street, not to allow ourselves to impose an arbitrary interpretation of the Constitution that the power and the regime are using to violate our rights,” Martínez tells 14ymedio hours after the action. The teacher, that he was expelled from his teaching job from the University of Medical Sciences of Cienfuegos, explains that a week has passed since the call because the tension has decreased a lot and he owed a debt to the political prisoners and to himself.
“I did it thinking of Maykel Obsorbo, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, José Daniel Ferrer, Luis Robles and all the others who are not so well known, but are still people who are unjustly serving prison sentences”
“I did it thinking of Maykel Obsorbo, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, José Daniel Ferrer, Luis Robles and all the others who are not so well known, but are still people who are unjustly serving prison sentences,” he adds. Martínez explains that throughout the walk, which he documented on video and disseminated, as requested by the platform of which he is part, he did not have any mishap and that at the end he had a few words for citizens who want to listen to him and with which he calls keep the protest active.
“This fight continues. Many thought that Archipelago had died, that on the 15th everything had been very bad, especially as a result of Yunior’s departure. [García Aguilera] to Spain, but the reality is totally opposite, “he remarks.
Martínez considers that having turned Yunior García Aguilera into an icon of the Archipelago has been a strategy of the Cuban Government, which has thus managed to catalyze a movement in a single person to then focus on breaking it and, when achieving it, try to take the All the group.
“Once Yunior collapsed, as it happened to him, because it is humanly possible, the regime already had the whole story prepared so that his collapse as a person was also that of the Archipelago. Nothing more unreal than that, because the Archipelago has more than 30,000 members, Yunior is one, “he says.
Martínez does not deny that García Aguilera, as the founder of the platform, was considered a leader by most of them, but he rejects that his departure could end the common goal. “He can be in Spain today or in the place where he decides, because he has every right. That does not mean that Archipelago continues to be a civic citizen project that is responsible for defending a series of values such as civility, inclusiveness, diversity, pluralism, democracy and individual responsibility “, he defends.
The professor also asks that society stop focusing on García Aguilera to avoid “playing the game of the dictatorship, with bad or good intention.” “The prisons are full of political prisoners, in Cuba there is no rule of law, and practically we have a leviathan confronting us to crush us and put our foot behind our heads. We must not waste time criticizing our brothers in struggle, and yes someone is wrong, you have to move on “.
Despite the initial confusion after the surprise departure of García Aguilera, the group says they have debated long hours after which they are reinforced in their objectives and lines of work
Martínez’s act coincided this Monday with the dissemination of a statement from the platform in which Archipelago takes stock of the events. Despite the initial confusion after the surprise departure of García Aguilera, the group says they have debated long hours after which they are reinforced in their objectives and lines of work.
For this, they are defined as a platform for citizen action that seeks to promote a new social pact and a model of Republic that integrates the wishes of all citizens. In addition, they insist on embracing all ideologies and coordinating horizontally, putting values such as civility, inclusivity, diversity, pluralism, democracy, responsibility with life and the safety of the community at the forefront.
Among its objectives they once again point out the release of political prisoners, the creation of spaces for citizen participation, the conquest of rights through peaceful means, the fight against discrimination for any reason or the promotion of popular consultations to empower voices. of civil society.
“In the next few days we will be presenting and promoting concrete actions that continue to contribute to the achievement of all rights for all Cubans,” the platform said. And, according to Martínez: “We are going to do that with or without Yunior.”
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