MIAMI, United States. – Yoandi Montiel Hernandez, the influencer known as El Gato de Cuba, is on a hunger strike to protest the abuses against inmates committed in the Valle Grande prison, according to what his father, Lázaro Montiel, told Radio Television Marti.
“He has been on a hunger strike since 13 [de octubre] but I do not know if they have put him in the dungeon. This Monday he gets his phone call. If he does not communicate, he is in a punishment cell, ”said Montiel.
In the past week, the mother of influencerMaría Hernández Álvarez, denounced that the regime was conditioning the release of her son with blackmail.
“They are using it as a type of blackmail with him,” said Hernández Álvarez in a direct from facebook. “They went to see him to tell him to speak on the networks, to encourage young Cubans not to go out on the streets anymore.”
“He refused, of course. He’s on because if you’re up for something, how are you going to back down later? He is not one of those. That is blackmail and he stood his ground and said no, that he they gave him two years unfairly and he is complying with them,” said the mother of the influencer.
In this sense, his father also confirmed the alleged blackmail in his interview with Radio Televisión Martí. “They went to make a video for him to retract and tell young people not to go out on the streets. He refused and on October 12 the lawyer called me on the phone and informed me that they did not grant him parole and that he should not ask for it anymore because they are not going to give it to him, ”said Lázaro Montiel.
Although, in accordance with the Cuban Jail and Prison Regulations, El Gato de Cuba has been entitled to parole since August, State Security has denied the benefit to the influencer Cuban.
At one point in her recent direct, the mother of El Gato de Cuba addressed the authorities of the regime, and particularly the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel: “You work with blackmail and lies. Immoral they all are. Divine justice does not fail. You are destroying Cuba and my country. Everyone knows how you guys work.”
“It is a constant abuse and that of those people. It’s blackmail. They don’t deserve any respect, and theirs is too much. I found out about all these things from a prisoner who was released, because I haven’t talked to my son for a long time, “he lamented.
“I say this to the dictators: it’s okay to blackmail my son, it’s okay now, that they put him in prison unjustly and on top of that he has to listen to blackmail. They just released it already. There are no houses, people have fallen, but they continue to put people in prison. I don’t know where they get so many jails from,” he said.
He also assured that he was advocating for the release of El Gato and for the mothers who are also “fighting for their children and are protesting even within the country.”
“It’s good now. Release those guys who have said nothing but the truth to your face, because there is no one who lives that way, ”he added.
El Gato de Cuba was sentenced to two years in prison for the crime of contempt in a trial held on April 7 of this year. The influencer He was arrested in April 2021 and taken to Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters on the island. Later, he was transferred to the Valle Grande prison, where he is still being held.
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