Hundreds of people protest in Cuba, and the regime calls them “three drunkards”

Small town alligatorin the Cuban province of Guantanamo, it got heated this Saturday when hundreds of people took to the streets protest peacefully due to the uncertain situation in which they live, chanting “freedom”, “democracy”, “we want food”, “down with dictatorship” and “homeland and life”.

The demonstrators went to the headquarters of the Communist Party (PKC) and the municipal government, after which they violently suppressed by elite forces Army and police. Despite the almost immediate interruption of the Internet, which lasted for several hours across the country, later videos were released to the public that clearly show what happened, as well as various testimonies from citizens.

As is known, five more people were detained this Monday. Victoria Martínez Valdivia, the mother of the two, condemned that her eldest son had disappeared until now after being brutally beaten.

“Luis Miguel Alarcón Martínez was kicked in the head. I don’t know if my son is alive or dead. His brother [con discapacidad intelectual] He came out to help him, and they hit him wherever they wanted,” says the desperate mother in the video. “They gave me, my daughter got biscuits [cachetadas] too,” he adds.

She and the other neighbors emphasize that the protesters did not behave violently and explain the trigger of the protest. “They came out because they saw what their nephews were eating: peas [guisantes] with weevils, rice and boiled plantain, all cooked without oil. What are we? males [cerdos]?, this modest woman asks. “They came out because they couldn’t stand it any longer, hearing those little creatures say they were hungry”he concludes with his children by his side.

A few hours after the event, a member of the local PCC appeared in a parallel reality, pretending to give an image of calm and assuring that only “three drunks” were disturbing the order and “had a response from the authorities and the population”. ” Ignoring the existence of video and the Internet, a statement signed by the Prime Minister in Caimanera was published the next day, repeating this version: “Several persons in an intoxicated state (…) tried to disturb the public peace. .”

This is not the first time something like this has happened. The biggest social coup, on July 11, 2021, resulted in one death and more than a thousand detainees and sentenced to long-term prison terms, with the subsequent manipulation of the official media. After that, similar events happened in time in other places.

Everything indicates that it will not be any different with the events on Caimanera. But in the current conditions of the deep systemic crisis in which Cuba finds itself, it is also predictable that these epidemics will multiply and grow more and more.