Being a father, mother and grandfather in the last year was hard for Wilbert Aguilar. His family was torn apart. Something similar happened with more than 100 homes in La Güinera, a marginal neighborhood in Havana, troubled by police during the historic protests of July 2021.
Since then, the government has tried to compensate that town in the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, the most populous in Havana and one of the poorest on its periphery.
He repaired potholes, rehabilitated offices, painted warehouses and promised houses for several families, as part of the improvement program implemented in 60 neighborhoods in Havana.
The protest in La Güinera on July 12 was the last gasp of the social outcry unleashed the previous day in Cuba.
The demonstrations of July 11 shook nearly 50 towns on the island to the cry of “Liberty” and “We are hungry”, when the economic crisis engulfing Cuba, the worst in three decades.
A street in the La Güinera neighborhood, in Havana, Cuba, days ago. Photo: AFP
Arrests and convictions
Wilbert Aguilar, a 49-year-old self-employed worker, does not want to remember the day in December that his 22-year-old son Wagniel was prosecuted. He is one of the 160 detainees, of which 133 are still imprisoned in this neighborhood alone, according to Cubalex, a Miami-based human rights NGO.
“When I told my wife that my son was sentenced to 23 years, my house collapsed,” he says, raising his voice. “I had to wash, scrub, cook, because my wife lost her temper.”
Wilbert took care of his daughter-in-law and two granddaughters. After appealing, Wagniel He is serving a 12-year sentence.
Her neighbor, Elizabet León Martínez, 51, worked as a manicurist before three of her five children went to prison.
“I don’t give more, I have no nerves, I have no life, I have nothing. Taking care of my grandchildren because I don’t have and can’t work,” he says without letting go of his cell phone for a minute, waiting for calls from prison.
That July 12, hundreds of people tried to reach the La Güinera police station, right at the entrance to the neighborhood.
Clashes with the police and arrests during the July 2021 protests in Havana. Photo: AP
Militants of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC, unique) prevented it, accompanied by the largest anti-riot operation deployed in those two days by the government. Stones, bottles and sticks flew. The street was covered with glass and rocks.
The anti-government marches, the largest since the triumph of the revolution in 1959, left one dead throughout the country, shot down in this same neighborhood by soldiers, in addition to dozens injured on both sides and more than 1,300 arrests, according to Cubalex.
The government reported that 790 prisoners were charged and 488 received a final sentence, many for the crime of sedition with sentences of up to 25 years in prison.
The United States recently said it would work with allies to support those “wrongfully” detained.
President Joe Biden is “deeply concerned” about the “heavy sentences,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said June 30.
The neighborhood of La Güinera, in Havana, a year after the protests. Photo: AFP
The sentences passed in neighborhoods such as La Güinera are “exemplary” in “significant” Afro-Cuban populations.
Jorge Gil, a 72-year-old retiree and a representative of the Communist Party of Cuba in La Güinera, acknowledges that the protest was the result of years of neglect.
“There was a fairly long stop and the entire cast deteriorated,” he explains in front of the foundations of what was his house.
The house was demolished for its reconstruction, as part of the official improvement program. The materials have not arrived and he continues to live with his family in a borrowed place.
Opposite, in a newly painted house with a tin roof, lives Isabel Hernández, 44 years old. One of her children is also in prison for marching.
Despite this, his home was restored in six months, thanks to the improvement work. “I’m very happy,” she says with mixed feelings.
Triumph of the Revolution?
Some believe that July 12 was a triumph of the revolution. “We are more than super grateful, president, with all the changes that our neighborhood has had,” said Ileana Macías, a santera and local leader, during a women’s meeting with the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel.
But for Wilbert Aguilar, there is a “general sadness.” He denies that the protesters are “counterrevolutionaries.” “They didn’t find weapons on them, their only weapon was their voice,” he alleges.
Even Gil, who fought in two wars in Africa and defends the socialist system tooth and nail, admits that there is a feeling of pain.
“I hope that this is a problem that is quickly corrected and that most of those boys go out on the street because in the end they are boys and they have to rectify it,” he says among what remains of his house, where the only inhabitant is a rooster fluttering around him.
Fuente: AFP
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