Cuba is facing criticism. This unlikely dissident says he will protest anyway

But Cuban officials are increasingly targeting Yunior Garcio Aguilero and his proposal to carry out a peaceful political march later this month, for which the state has already refused permission.

“Cubans have spent too much time in silence,” Garcia Aguilera said during an interview in his cramped apartment in the depressed San Agustín neighborhood of Havana. “It’s time to open our mouths with freedom and say what we think.”

Garcia Aguilera is not a typical anti-government Cuban dissident. He has worked in state theater and television productions for many years, is critical of the U.S. embargo on the island, and says he is more liberal than the Cuban “conservative” leadership. Cuban state media compared him this week to acclaimed Czech playwright and human rights defender Vaclav Havel, although the description was not intended as a compliment.

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His planned march is meant for a call democratic reforms of the political system of the Caribbean nation, as well as the release of political prisoners. In response, the Cuban state encountered a series of accusations.

Cuban state television aired footage of Garcia Aguilera’s personal phone calls and aired programs that allegedly claim to be between a playwright and a dark force that is said to have overthrown a more than six-decade-old revolution in Cuba.

In one phone call, it can be heard that Garcia Aguilera is superficially talking to a well-known Cuban exile against Castro, Ramon Saul Sanchez, who is offering his support to Garcia Aguilera. Cuban government officials viewed the call as convincing evidence that the playwright was in contact with Cuban exiles in Florida, whom the government accuses of planning terrorist attacks on the island.

Local doctor Carlos Leonardo Vázquez González showed photos of the conference, which he said he attended with Garcia Aguilera and other critics of the Cuban government in Madrid in 2019, in a video aired Monday on Cuba’s Reasons television.

Garcia Aguilera at his home in Havana.

Vázquez González also said in the program that he was actually a double agent reporting to Cuban state security about Garcia Aguilera.

“In Yunior, we see the creation and appearance of a counter-revolutionary,” Vázquez González said.

Garcia Aguilera confirmed the authenticity of the phone call and conference, but said they were misrepresented on television. It denies receiving any funding from foreign governments or exile groups, and insists it seeks democratic change within Cuba through legal channels.

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In support of his plan to protest, Garcia Aguilera formed a group called Archipelago, which has more than 31,000 followers on Facebook. Members of the group say they too are being harassed for their activism, and complain that they are being followed by state security agents in civilian clothes and threatened by government officials.

Members also accuse the Cuban state-owned telecommunications provider of preventing Cubans from sending messages with the word archipelago in Spanish or the date of their planned protest – a long-established censorship tactic on the island. CNN independently validated the message block.

In October, Garcia Aguilera posted on social media images of the corpse and blood and feathers of a dead bird scattered across the entrance to his apartment in the middle of the night – a bloody scene he understood as a warning to stop his activism.

He blamed the government for the vandalism and said the police who monitored his house would know who was responsible. Cuban officials have not responded to his allegations of harassment.

Garcia Aguilera’s wife also filmed neighbors on Monday performing a nightly “acto de repudio” or “act of rejection” – chanting government slogans on the couple’s doorstep and “warning” him to stop his activism.

Nevertheless, Garcia Aguilera and a handful of other protest organizers say they plan to continue their planned march. They say they want peaceful protesters arrested after the July 11 demonstrations, releases, more guarantees for individual freedoms and the abolition of official censorship.

View of empty streets in Havana, September 1, 2020.

Dangerous time for protests

Action against the communist-led island government poses even greater risks than usual, after the country was upset by mass protests in July, increased US economic sanctions and the implosion of their tourism industry. during a pandemic.

According to the Cubalex group, which monitors legal issues on the island, at least 1,175 Cubans were arrested after protests on July 11, when more people took to the streets and demanded greater freedoms and economic conditions – the largest demonstration in Cuba since. the 1959 revolution.

While government officials said they targeted protesters who attacked police and robbed shops, dozens of people said they were forcibly arrested for peacefully marching or merely filming protests.

Cubans march in front of the Havana Capitol during a demonstration against the government of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Havana, July 11, 2021.

Government officials insist the island constitution gives Cubans the right to protest, but in practice demonstrations are quickly shattered by police, and government critics are accused of being “mercenaries” in the service of Cuban enemy from the U.S. Cold War.

“Having different opinions, including political ones, does not constitute a crime,” Rubén Remigio Ferro, president of Cuba’s Supreme People’s Court, told a July news conference shortly after the protests. “Thinking differently, wondering what’s going on, demonstrating is not a crime.”

These remarks, which point to an openness to some opposition, have inspired Garcia Aguilero and other members of the Archipelago group to sign up to carry out peaceful marches in various towns around the island, the playwright told CNN.

The Cuban government, however, described the planned marches as a pretext invented by Cuban exiles and the U.S. government that would lead to an “enemy” invasion of Cuba. For the same day, she announced military exercises throughout the island.

“[The protest] The promoters, their public projections and links to US government-funded subversive organizations or agencies have the open intention of changing the political system in our country, “Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a speech to the Cuban Communist Party Central Committee in October.

Cuban state media have already broadcast images of training militias with AK-47s and members of the “Revolutionary Defense Committee” patrolling the streets with metal rods.

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Garcia Aguilera has since postponed the proposed march from November 20 to 15, although the Cuban government is unlikely to allow protesters to attend regardless of the date. He said the government’s overreaction to his proposed march only proved his thesis.

“They have shown that there is no rule of law,” he said. “There is no way for citizens to legally, peacefully and orderly show their disagreement to those authorities.”

Because there is so much tension in the air, it is not clear how many Cubans will join Garcia Aguilera’s call for protest, but already this initiative threatens to worsen strained relations between the US and Cuban.

“The Cuban regime fails to meet the most basic needs of the people. That includes food. That includes medicine. Now is the opportunity to listen to Cubans and make positive changes,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in October.

The Biden’s administration warned the Cuban government that the island could face further economic sanctions if it prevents the march from taking place.

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