MIAMI, United States.- Irma Ravelo, wife of Cuban political prisoner Yeremin Salcinetold this Wednesday during an interview for the CubaNet podcast Los Condenados that she considers the 10-year prison sentence against her husband an injustice for participating in the demonstration on July 11, 2021 in Artemisa.
Ravelo denounced that the sentence against Salcine had already become final, without allowing him an oral hearing as a first appeal. “It was the only municipality that was not allowed that resource, which is already exhausted. We only have the review procedure with the Supreme Court, and we are working on it, ”he explained.
Yeremin Salcine was sentenced to prison for the crimes of public disorder, contempt and attack. However, Irma assures that the three crimes are unfounded and false.
“When a peaceful demonstration takes place on a national level, and on a large scale. If the people are in the streets shouting, protected by Article 56 of the Constitution, you cannot charge crimes of public disorder”, he claimed.
For its part, it also ensures that the contempt did not exist, neither physically nor verbally. There is no evidence to prove it, he said.
“The case that most weighs on him is the attack, because he climbs on the running boards of a truck. But they did not appreciate why he climbed on the running boards of the truck: he did it to ask the driver to stop, because he was rushing against the town. Yes, there was an attack on 11J, but it was from the government to the people”, he pointed out.
Irma defends that her husband only tried to preserve the human lives of the people who were there. “The truck was trying to run over people, and the 13 who are involved in this case what they did was try to stop the truck. In addition, the people who were driving the truck were dressed in civilian clothes, so contempt for authority did not exist, ”she said.
For Irma Ravelo these almost 12 months have been very difficult. She assures that her husband was the representative figure of her house, she depended on him for everything, since she is a housewife, “and now I am alone with my child. I haven’t gotten used to it, but I have stayed strong. I can’t afford a relapse because I need to be firm and strong to keep fighting for him.”
As a result of the denunciations that have taken place in Cuba after the phenomenon of Amelia Calzadilla, Irma assures that “we must unite and organize ourselves to campaign in favor of our prisoners.” And although she values the support that the young woman has received, she affirms that each one must be oneself and not hide behind her young mother.
“We must go out in front together with her, not behind her. We are Amelia, but we are Cuba, we are the political prisoners. People must stop being slaves to themselves and do what Amelia did and much more too, because we have rights, we are human beings.”
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.
