2023-06-16 13:33:06
Once again, I am grateful to each person, medium and international instance that has shown solidarity and concern in the face of the harassment that I am suffering.
I explain below what happened yesterday, the steps I took today and the ones I will take in the coming days.
Ayer
They intercepted the engine in which I was traveling to an activity of my work. A young sergeant told me that she should accompany her, I asked the reason and she said that she had been ordered to take me and that she was carrying out her orders. I told her that I was not in the military and she was not following orders but rather the law, and that she had to explain to me. I inquired if she was detained and she told me that she was not. So I told her that she was not going to voluntarily get into the patrol car without a reason, that if she wanted to handcuff me and take me by force, and she believed that this was correct, she should proceed to do so. I must say she didn’t even touch me and she looked embarrassed. She told me that I could be her mom. I asked her age and she told me that she was 22 years old. I told her that indeed she could, that my youngest daughter was 23. her Then she called another car. In it came a major who told me that she should accompany them, that she was not going under arrest, but rather that she should be taken away due to a complaint for disobedience. Given that explanation, I got on the patrol car and we went to the beach station.
Several friends witnessed the arrest and notified my family.
Most of the more than twelve hours that I was detained, I spent sitting in an office with several female PNR officers. I was kindly treated by them, they gave me lunch and dinner but I refused. I asked for my daughter to bring me sciatica pain tablets and they made that easy. The times I wanted to go to the bathroom they took me. I must say that the construction conditions and the furniture of the station are terrible.
My exchange with authorities was divided into three moments:
Meeting with a State Security lieutenant colonel, uniformed in olive green, and a State Security instructor. She was young and easily agitated, gesticulating, waving her hands, and grimacing. Her superior sent her out mid-conversation. If they wanted to use the good cop/bad cop strategy I don’t think they did it right.
He began by telling me that he had committed a crime of disobedience by not attending the day before the interview. I reminded him that in November of last year I filed a complaint and applied to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office for an action for annulment of the procedure because articles of the Criminal Procedure Law cannot be invoked to force me to go to an interview when there is no open criminal case with a number of file and previous report of a crime. I reminded him that at that time they had annulled my summons because the summons document lacked that information, and that the one that was presented to me on the 13th did not reflect it either, hence I understood that it was an illegal summons.
He said that I had an incorrect interpretation of the law and I replied that there was nothing to interpret because the letter of the Criminal Procedure Law was very clear.
He then tried to convince me that I could not travel to the annual event organized by the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE), because that organization was rare, it was not academic because it was not located in a university and that they surely wanted to “seminar” me.
I told him that State Security should be better informed, that ASCE is a respectable academic association, with several decades of existence, that includes academics from several countries, that it is not political in nature or receives funding from the United States government and whose board is elected democratically among members. I also suggested that they read the papers presented at the events, which are published every year and are on their website.
We talked a lot about politics and our points of view were contrary. I asked him on several occasions if I was prohibited from demonstrating, because it is a right established in the Constitution. He said that he did have the right, but that he had to comply with the law. I replied that they have not approved the complementary law, ignoring the constitutional mandate. He insisted that it was approved, incredible the lousy legal preparation that he demonstrated. He stated that I had to ask for permission to demonstrate and I replied that my demonstration was individual, that it did not alter the dynamics of public space and therefore did not require prior permission.
Both he and the instructor insisted that it was possible for other people to join me as I encouraged them to do so. I asked them for proof of that incitement and they did not respond.
The end of the conversation was: “well, we don’t understand each other”, to which I replied that this phrase was what Maceo said to Martínez Campos at the meeting in Baraguá and that I agreed with it, but that my position was that of Maceo when he thought that begging for rights was something for cowards, a phrase that appeared on the poster that was seized from me, even with the signing of an act of “seizure of findings.”
“Well, that’s why you’re going to sleep here and you’ll be charged with disobedience.” I told him that there was a bed, no problem for me, and that I was waiting for the instruction.
He stated that I was a “difficult” person. I had to agree on that, it seems that for State Security someone who knows how to defend himself and argue is difficult.
I found it paradoxical that he insisted that he was not afraid. “Well, there are two of us in that same situation,” I replied.
2 Instruction:
The instructor introduced himself, there was always an officer sitting behind him. He read me a complaint “for disobedience” made by the chief captain of the sector who went to summon me.
He then read me the rights I had, one of which was that I was not obliged to testify without the presence of my lawyer. Another was that I could appoint a lawyer, have one ex officio or represent myself. I asked him if I could defend myself and he said yes. Then she told me that if I would represent myself, she could take my statement at that moment, which I accepted. I asked if I could access my file when it was completed, she said yes, although she clarified that photocopies and photos were not allowed, only notes. I said that it seemed fine to me and that since I was going to sleep there I wanted to study it well and take notes.
I made the statement. He handwritten it and asked me to read and sign. I told him that I would read it but that I would only sign a printed document. I read, corrected some details and offered to correct his spelling, which was very bad. She refused, saying “the machine would do it,” which it didn’t.
He asked for 20 minutes to come back and it took several hours. When he returned he brought the file, and I sat down and studied it in great detail. There I discovered the following violations and inconsistencies:
-A complaint from a victim of abuse made by the sergeant who tried to lead me without explanation. That complaint was not read to me in the investigation process. She claims that I attempted to escape several times and physically resisted arrest. Her witness is the PNR driver who was driving the patrol car. Both statements are false. The complaint correctly indicates the time at which I was arrested: 9 and 10 am.
-An arrest warrant issued against me at 10 am due to a complaint for disobedience.
-The complaint against me for disobedience made by the captain and head of the sector at 10 and 21 am.
I felt like I was in a remake of the movie “Memento”, whose plot starts from the end: I was arrested 50 minutes before the arrest warrant was issued, and the arrest warrant for the complaint was issued 21 minutes before it was issued. make the complaint.
I think that was the moment of greatest indignation. I felt that my analytical skills were underestimated and I told the instructor that it was a botch that even a primary school child could detect. I suggested that he take it to all the SE officers who were gathered like ants in an office and who had built a case on the fly to accuse and frighten me. He got very nervous, picked up the file and told me that he was going to consult.
Two hours later he returned with two sheets and two news: “you cannot represent yourself and you can go home but you have a precautionary measure of home confinement.” I replied that among the complaints to the Prosecutor’s Office would be a complaint against him for having deceived me in the investigation process and for taking an illegal statement that violates my right to due process. In addition, I told him that I would not sign my statement because, among all the violations, I was not given the details of the complaint for abuse.
I told him I wasn’t going to leave until one of the SE officers came to talk to me.
3 He looked for an officer who introduced himself as Major Antonio Rodríguez, although he had told my daughter his name was Alejandro. He said he was the SE officer who attends the PNR station. Surprise: even the police have a “partner who attends to them”!
I told him that the case against me was a sham, that I would file a complaint for illegal detention and multiple violations of due process. He told me that he would review the file but that it was already filed at that time. He also affirmed that they had grounds that allowed him to affirm that ASCE was “a counterrevolutionary organization that was preparing a coup d’état in Cuba.” I suggested that he be very careful with false statements and told him that I would quote his words on the networks when explaining what happened. He got a little nervous but didn’t back down.
I left the station very late and in the middle of a blackout with my sister. I asked to be transferred to my house and they told me that they did not have cars. We rented one that wanted to charge us 700 pesos but I managed to haggle him down to 550.
Hoy
I went early to the Prosecutor’s Office and they were already waiting for me. The prosecutors Alina and Emilio attended me. It was an exquisite deal, it is fair to admit. I explained everything in detail, reported illegal detention and multiple violations in the arraignment process.
The minutes were drawn up, reviewed and signed.
They advised me to immediately appoint a lawyer, something that was also requested by several legal friends and that I will do. They said they would take care of investigating my complaint and review the file, and they would give a response as quickly as possible.
Tomorrow I will see my lawyer.
On Saturday I will go to visit my father’s grave at the Cárdenas cemetery since Father’s Day Sunday coincides with the 18th, the day I carry out my monthly civic action in Libertad Park, I will take the opportunity then to make the demonstration.
If the PNR officers are sent to stop me that day, I would like to ask them to come and pick me up at the entrance of my building, thus saving me the engine. I will have a briefcase ready with everything to be detained.
#Testimonies #Cuban #intellectual #Alina #López #Hernández