Residents of Guamo Viejo, a rural community of about 600 inhabitants in Río Cauto (Granma), took to the streets this Friday to protest, demanding freedom for Mayelín Carrasco Álvarez, the mother of three who was detained this week for speaking out about the hunger and severe shortages experienced in the area.
"Freedom for Mayelín," "Yes, man, the people are the first fools there are," can be heard in a 30-second video shared on social media by the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), José Daniel Ferrer.
In the images, neighbors can be seen with signs, making noise with cans, demanding freedom for Mayelín Carrasco Álvarez. The woman was transferred to Bayamo this Thursday, after being treated at a local hospital following her fainting during the interrogation she underwent for peacefully protesting in the Plaza Ángel Fría, in Río Cauto.
Mayelín Carrasco Álvarez is 47 years old, a mother of three, and complained that they had taken away her milk, the eggs, and that there was no alcohol or bright light for cooking. She also questioned that everything had already "collapsed," referring to what she herself called the "revolution of Fidel and Raúl."
The government of Río Cauto denied having left her abandoned, claiming that they provided her with a "temporary" house made of "boards and zinc," offered her three state jobs which she declined, and allocated her a hectare of land that she never went to sign for. They did not clarify that the salary offered for the state jobs is insufficient for sustenance and that she has no access to farming tools to cultivate the supposedly allocated lands.
Mayelín Carrasco protested from the Ángel Fría square in Río Cauto, in front of a group of neighbors, mostly men, who did not support her demonstration and only raised their voices when an agent from the political police and a high-ranking official of the Communist Party in the municipality took her away by force. Only then did they shout, "Let her go, abusers."
Now the neighbors of Guamo Viejo, those who have nothing to lose, have taken to the streets to protest, demanding the release of Mayelín Carrasco. Her closest circle fears that they will label her as crazy to claim that she protested due to a mental illness, rather than as a way to exercise her civic rights.
From the very beginning, José Daniel Ferrer has been following the case of Mayelín Carrasco and encourages Cubans to support her because she has not committed any crime. In fact, she herself clarified from the square that she was "claiming her rights."
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