Cuban Prosecutor's Office concludes that the police who murdered the young man from La Güinera "acted in legitimate defense"

The Cuban Prosecutor's Office concluded that Diuvis Laurencio Tejeda, a 36-year-old resident of the Havana neighborhood of La Güinera whoparticipated in the protests of July 12, died as a result of shots fired “in self-defense” by a police officer.

As he was able to verifyCuban Diary In the preparatory phase file of those imprisoned for this protest, the Prosecutor's Office considered that the action of Second Lieutenant Yoennis Pelegrín Hernández in shooting Laurencio Tejeda was “in legitimate defense”, which is why he did not file charges against the National Police officer. Revolutionary (PNR).

The documentation, to which the aforementioned media had access, reveals that there are 161 people accused of events in which the police opened fire on unarmed civilians. The Prosecutor's Office accuses them of the alleged crimes of Damage, Public Disorder and Instigation to Crime, and justifies the actions of the PNR.

However, in the file itself investigated by this body – to which it had accessCuban Diary-, the statement of Second Lieutenant Pelegrín Hernández is recorded in which he stated that he fired his Makarov pistol towards the demonstration when he saw that two police officers had been injured by stones in their arms and legs, something that is contradictory to the action "in legitimate defense" that the Prosecutor's Office alleges in the document.

Likewise, the statement of the author ofthe shots that ended the life of Laurencio Tejeda, mentions that he acted in response to the "provocations and threats" of the protesters.

In his testimony, which is part of the summary, Second Lieutenant Pelegrín Hernández does not properly describe a situation in which he was directly attacked or his physical integrity was threatened. The officer claimed that one of the civilians showed him his genitals and told him that his gun had blank bullets.

In addition, the PNR officer said that the protesters also yelled at him that they would take his gun. However, in his statement, Pelegrín Hernández does not describe having been attacked by Laurencio Tejeda or another protester in such a proportion that justifies the argument of "legitimate defense" applied to his case, as he observes.Cuban Diary.

However, the Prosecutor's Office considered that the uniformed man acted “in legitimate defense” by shooting at the demonstration, causing the almost instantaneous death of Laurencio Tejeda, as reported at the time by relatives and neighbors of the deceased. The file states that the fatal wound was caused by a bullet that passed through his lung and reached his heart.

The file also reveals that, in addition to Yoel Misael Fuentes García - the 16-year-old minor injured in the leg that Diario de Cuba documented -, two more people were injured by police bullets. Their names are Yorlandis Pérez Sánchez and Rubén Pérez Aldana. In the case of Fuentes García, his relatives reported pressure and threats from the police on the teenager in an interrogation sustained during his hospitalization.

Also revealing in the document is the fact that the alleged criminal record of Laurencio Tejeda, which the state media alleged in their information about what happened in the protest in the La Güinera neighborhood, is not mentioned; which confirms the versions of his relatives about the falsity of the information offered by the official media, which alluded to an alleged criminal past of the deceased.

On July 12, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the Havana neighborhoods of La Güinera and Párraga to protest against the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel, following the social outbreak of 11J. Live broadcasts on Facebook reported on the situation, with images showing neighbors calling for the end of communism and the resignation of the Cuban ruler shouting “Freedom.”

“In the afternoon of yesterday, July 12, 2021, organized groups of antisocial and criminal elements in the Güinera Popular Council, municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, altered the order and tried to head towards the PNR Station of the territory, with the aim of attacking its troops and damaging the facility,” said the statement issued by the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) the day after the events.

“In the confrontation, several citizens were detained, and others were injured, including law enforcement officers. Among the participants in the riots, citizen Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, 36 years old, resident in the municipality itself and with a record of contempt, theft and disorderly conduct, was killed, for which he served a sanction," the MININT note added. disclosed by the official media.

After the events,Díaz-Canel ordered regime officials to visit La Güinera to “listen to the people”. The former spy and national coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, went there to raise the flag.the “first Popular Revolutionary Surveillance Detachment”.

For its part, State Security arrested and accused Odet Hernández Cruzata and her husband Reynier Reinosa Cabrera of being the instigators of the spontaneous demonstration in the La Güinera neighborhood.as he stated in statements toCyberCuba a relative of Hernández, a 32-year-old girl and mother of a 5-year-old girl, who was accused of being the ringleader for having broadcast the demonstration live.

The couple is part of the more than 800 people, mostly young people (some minors), who remain arrested, according to the Cubalex Legal Advice Center. The NGO confirms that another 260 people have already been released under some type of precautionary measure or fines, while denouncing the forced disappearance of 10 more people, whose whereabouts are unknown.