The Cuban communist regime is not satisfied with preventing the return to Cuba of brothers Omara and Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, nor with the accusations against the political police for allegedly having infected Ariel with HIV. Now they are also targeting the mother of these two academics, activists, and opponents of the dictatorship. Following the forced exile of her sons, the nearly 78-year-old retired Biology teacher took over the farm that the younger son had been managing in a rural area of Pinar del Río, and representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture have just informed her of the termination of the contract due to an alleged violation.
The mother of the Ruiz Urquiola family has faced hurricanes and the demands of rural life, managing a small plot dedicated to livestock breeding and the recovery of native species. However, on the 18th of this November, representatives from the Agriculture Delegation in Viñales handed her a document warning that they would revoke the usufruct due to breach of contract, as Ariel Ruiz Urquiola is currently outside of Cuba. They explained to her that he has not renewed the usufruct.
Both Ariel and Omara Ruiz Urquiola have explained on their Facebook profiles that they cannot renew their contracts because the regime itself does not allow them to return to Cuba. In Ariel's case, he was unable to renew his passport in 2020. Anticipating that this might happen, he executed a power of attorney in Havana in favor of Omara, and she has also not been allowed to return every time she has attempted to do so.
"My brother is outside because he hasn’t been allowed to enter. They (the Agriculture Delegation) confirmed with Immigration that my brother has not entered Cuba. They didn’t mention me, and I have a valid power of attorney regarding the animals and the house. They cannot just refer to my brother. They are ignoring that I have not been able to enter because the Minint and Immigration have not allowed me in. The farm continues to produce. We have built animal enclosures. The farm is functioning. They are threatening to tear down the enclosures that we have constructed on our land. This land was practically barren; we have revived it through my mother’s hard work, dedication, and perseverance over the years. She has done it alone, without leaving because she is afraid, since they have killed animals. They are trying to punish us through the animals because they know the emotional bond we have with them. The goal is to load our animals onto a truck, ignoring that I also have power over those animals; that my brother and I can’t enter because they won’t let us, and take them to a slaughterhouse. Most of the cows are pregnant; all the animals are perfectly healthy; most are very young. Their way of getting back at us is by abusing my mother, who is an elderly woman, a kind person; a retired Biology teacher who is very respected, peaceful, and they want to hurt her. This is their way of trying to eliminate us. They won’t let us in. This is simply an act of revenge," explained Omara Ruiz Urquiola on her Facebook wall.
Ariel Ruiz Urquiola also took apart each point of the Agriculture resolution 164/2024 in a live Facebook session and accused the representatives of the Agriculture delegation in Viñales, who threatened his mother with the termination of her contract, of being "human rights violators and white-collar criminals."
He explains that he requested usufruct rights for idle land of fourth and fifth categories in Viñales, which were filled with marabú and heavily eroded, in July 2015. However, the application was not evaluated until October of that year. In January of the following year, Ariel Ruiz Urquiola filed a complaint with the Minagri (Ministry of Agriculture) delegation because he had not received a response to his request. Ultimately, he signed a five-year usufruct contract with the agroforestry company La Palma on May 27, 2016. He also received a certificate authorizing him to breed purebred cattle and equine animals. This obligated the institutions of the regime to sell him the necessary semen for animal reproduction.
In this way, Ruiz Urquiola refutes the claim that usufructs were granted in Cuba for 10 or 25 years. "Usufructs have served as a mechanism that benefits the front men of the dictatorship; politically correct farmers or politically correct individuals who must answer to the Rural Guard at any moment, worse than what was done before ’59," he noted.
Ariel Ruiz Urquiola explains that the political police tried to prevent his benefits as soon as he was expelled from the University of Havana and the State Security realized that he had no intention of leaving Cuba to pursue a doctorate at Humboldt University in Berlin.
"As everything was legally done, correctly executed, and well-founded, they had no choice but to involve Mr. Jesús Pérez López, who was at that time the director of the agroforestry company in Viñales, in an attempt to terminate the contract for an alleged breach, even though I was at that moment prohibited from engaging in any kind of activity regarding the usufruct," recalled Ruiz Urquiola.
Regardless of that prohibition, Ruiz Urquiola continued to work the land because he believes that "in this life, when you have a minimum of dignity, you know how to distinguish between abuse, rights, and fear," he said in a Facebook live.
Ariel Ruiz Urquiola warns that neither he nor his sister will stand idly by, and despite the pressure, the regime has not been able to intimidate their mother. He also cautions that she will leave that farm "feet first." "You are trying to end the life of this elderly woman solely because you have not been able to bend her children," he concluded.
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