The Cuban communist regime is not satisfied with preventing the return of brothers Omara and Ariel Ruiz Urquiola to Cuba or with the police's accusation of having infected Ariel with HIV. Now, they are also targeting the mother of these two academics, activists, and dissidents of the dictatorship. Following the ban on her children's entry to Cuba, the woman, nearly 78 years old and a retired Biology teacher, took over the farm that the younger son had on usufruct in a rural area of Pinar del Río. Representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture have just informed her of the termination of the contract due to an alleged breach.
The mother of the Ruiz Urquiola family has faced hurricanes and the challenges of rural life on a small plot dedicated to livestock and the recovery of native species. However, on November 18th of this month, representatives from the Agriculture Delegation in Viñales delivered a document informing her that they would be terminating the usufruct due to a 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 the contract 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 could happen, he arranged a power of attorney in Havana in favor of Omara, and she has also not been allowed to return every time she has tried.
"My brother is outside because he has not been allowed to enter. They (the Agriculture Delegation) have confirmed with Immigration that my brother has not entered Cuba. They did not mention me, yet I hold a valid power of attorney over the animals and the house. They cannot refer solely to my brother. They are ignoring the fact that I have not been able to enter because the Minint and Immigration have not allowed me. The farm continues to produce. We have built stables. The farm is functioning. They are threatening to tear down the stables that are constructed on our land. This land was practically barren, and we have brought it back to life through my mother's hard work, dedication, and perseverance over these years. She has done it alone, without leaving because she is afraid, given that they have killed our 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, disregarding that I also have power over them; that my brother and I cannot enter because they will not let us, and take them to a slaughterhouse. Most of the cows are pregnant; all the animals are perfectly healthy; the majority are very young. The way they seek revenge on us is by abusing my mother, who is an elderly woman, a noble person; a retired Biology teacher, very respected, peaceful, and they want to harm her. This is how they aim to destroy us. They are not letting us enter. This is simply a vendetta," explained Omara Ruiz Urquiola on her Facebook wall.
Ariel Ruiz Urquiola also meticulously dismantled each point of resolution 164/2024 from Agriculture in a live stream on Facebook and accused the representatives of the Agriculture delegation in Viñales, who threatened his mother with the termination of her contract, of being "violators of human rights and white-collar criminals."
He explains that he requested the usufruct of idle fourth and fifth category lands in Viñales, with soil overrun by marabú and highly eroded, in July 2015, but the file was not assessed until October of that year. In January of the following year, Ariel Ruiz Urquiola filed a complaint with the Minagri Delegation (Ministry of Agriculture) 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 horses. This obligated the regime's institutions to sell him the semen necessary for animal reproduction.
In this way, Ruiz Urquiola refutes the notion that usufruct was granted in Cuba for 10 or 25 years. "Usufructs have been a mechanism benefiting the frontmen of the dictatorship; politically compliant farmers or politically compliant individuals, who at any moment must answer to the Rural Guard worse than they did before '59," he stated.
Ariel Ruiz Urquiola explains that the political police attempted to stop 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 doctoral degree at Humboldt University in Berlin.
"As everything was done legally, correctly, and well-founded, they had no choice but to use Mr. Jesús Pérez López, who was at that time the director of the agroforestry company in Viñales, to attempt to terminate the contract for an alleged breach, even though at that time I was prohibited from engaging in any activities related to 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 remain inactive, and that despite the pressures, the regime has not succeeded in intimidating their mother. He also cautions that she will leave that farm "with her feet first." "You are trying to end the life of this elderly woman solely because you have not been able to subdue her children," he concluded.
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