Cubans in the Dominican Republic accuse the Embassy in Santo Domingo of sabotaging a peaceful protest.

"They had the complicit support of the Police, whom they deceived and manipulated by telling them that we would carry out a terrorist attack."

Cubanos en República Dominicana © Cortesía Manuel Milanés
Cubans in the Dominican RepublicPhoto © Courtesy of Manuel Milanés

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The Cuban businessman and economist Manuel Milanés recounted what happened this Sunday in front of the island's Embassy in the Dominican Republic when the diplomatic delegation used the police of that country to sabotage a group of citizens who wanted to protest peacefully.

"We scheduled for 10:30 in the morning, and they, from the Embassy, arrived at nine and had the complicity of the Police, whom they deceived and manipulated by telling them that we would carry out a terrorist attack," said the organizer and promoter of the initiative to CiberCuba.

In the video, it can be seen how they were intercepted by the uniformed officers, who asked the protesters to vacate the area, claiming they did not have the necessary permits.

"What they did not expect was that we would have a permit signed by the Ministry of Interior and that we would have everything in order. Even so, they insisted and tried to find a way to prevent us from expressing ourselves freely in a democratic country, which once suffered a dictatorship and knows very well what it means to live under an oppressive yoke," added Milanés.

Permission from the Ministry of the Interior for them to carry out the peaceful protest / Photo: Courtesy of Manuel Milanés

While the Cubans gathered to demand freedoms in Cuba and show their solidarity with the San Isidro Movement and the rapper Denis Solís, a group of Dominicans supportive of the island's government could be heard shouting slogans and insults against the protesters.

"They were not even a handful, most were people who believe the story of Fidel Castro's revolution and do not want to acknowledge that there, in Cuba, there is a dictatorship," said Milanés, who provided details about the slanders that were directed against them from the diplomatic side.

"Even a Dominican named Roberto Payano spoke, who is the coordinator of the Dominican Campaign of Solidarity with Cuba, who said that we were paid to be there and that the rest of the demonstrations taking place around the world were not a democratic exercise. He lied when he said that those protests were carried out with violence, when everyone knows they have been peaceful and according to the laws of each country, and he even went so far as to claim that the permission from the Ministry of the Interior was illegal and unconstitutional," he pointed out.

The Cuban added that some journalists and local media have echoed what happened and have distorted the truth, accusing us of very serious things such as following orders from the Government of the United States.

"One of them was Roberto Cavada, very well known here in the Dominican Republic, and on his website he quoted the state news agency Prensa Latina, which tried to portray us as public order disruptors," emphasized Milanés.

The group of Cubans in favor of democracy on the island feels let down by the Dominican authorities and hopes that incidents like this do not happen again, as they violate the rights of residents in that country, regardless of nationality. Therefore, they are considering the possibility of filing a lawsuit after being defamed without evidence.

"The Cuban embassy, by creating this state of opinion, calls into question not only the work of the president but also that of the Ministry of Interior and Police and the intelligence and counterintelligence agencies, as if they were not capable of detecting an attempt at a terrorist act on Dominican territory," Milanés pointed out to CiberCuba.

Finally, he expressed his satisfaction because despite the setbacks and the official boycott of the legitimate right to peaceful protest, they were able to carry out their activity and achieve their goal, which is nothing other than the demand for freedoms in Cuba.

"The regime has the world asleep with the communist dream. If we manage to break that complicity, it will be an important step," he concluded.

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Lázaro Javier Chirino

Journalist at CiberCuba. Bachelor's degree in Sociocultural Studies from the University of the Isle of Youth. Presenter and journalist on radio and television.


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