Voices from Canadian civil society spoke out in favor of the release of Michael Carey Abadin,the young Cuban-Canadian of 19 years who was arrested after the historic9/11 protests in Cuba.
The Canadian project'Democratic Spaces', led by human rights activist and researcher Michael Lima Cuadra, called on the liberal governmentJustin Trudeau to get involved in the young man's release.
“We call on the government of Canada to raise its voice for the release of Michael Carey Abadin, a 19-year-old citizen of Cuba and Canada, unjustly imprisoned. Denied visits and medical care. “In a delicate state of health,” Lima Cuadra tweeted.
Michael was arrested on July 12, while he was sitting near his house with a friend, in Old Havana, for allegedly breaking the glass of a nearby patrol car with a stone.
His mother, Yvis Abadin, reported this Thursday thatMichael remains in solitary confinement and without medical attention, according to what officials from the Jóvenes de Occidente prison in El Guatao informed him.
The young man, who had completed his studies at the Spanish Educational Center in Havana in the summer of 2020, was preparing to join his father in Canada shortly before being arrested. Contacted byCyberCubaPatricia Cepeda, Michael's teacher at the Spanish school for three years, highlighted that he is "a shy, calm, friendly boy, who was never in trouble, and maintained good relationships with his classmates and teachers."
"He was very loving and protective of his mother., because he knew that he was the only child and his parents were already older," Cepeda recalled. For her part, the mother assures that her son did not throw the stone that broke a window of the patrol car that was on Villegas Street, in Old Havana. , the night of July 12.
In statements toCyberCuba, Abadin assured that the stone flew from a building near the place where his son Michael was talking with another teenager. His version was confirmed by at least six witnesses to the event. Although no one could tell him who threw the stone, they all agreed that his son was innocent.
As a sign of his innocence, Abadin maintains that, if he had been the author of the stone throwing, he would not have sat so calmly talking to his friend on the street. “Like everyone who has no crime, he saw no evil,” says the mother. “Michael has always been a studious child, very prepared, he has always been an example of a child.” He also did not offer resistance when people dressed in civilian clothes demanded his documents.
During this time in prison, Michael was infected with coronavirus and, after overcoming it, he was left with a yellowish color that suggests that the virus may have affected his liver, or that he is suffering from hepatitis. Since the young man has not been taken to the doctor, it is not known exactly what his diagnosis is.
“They don't let him call because he is isolated and they haven't allowed his mother to see him again. "She goes every Wednesday to bring him his things," visual artist and activist Salomé García said at the end of September in the virtual group Desaparecidos #SOSCuba, explaining that the mother had not previously spoken publicly about her son's case because she did not know that there were ways to denounce "their arbitrary and unjust detention".
This Tuesday, Canadian senator Leo Housakos also raised his voice to demand that the Trudeau government lead an international initiativeto publicly condemn the serious human rights violations perpetrated by the Cuban regime against peaceful protesters and to demand that measures be taken to prevent power from abusing the more than 187,000 citizens peacefully protested throughout the island to demand freedom and democracy in Cuba
“It is unacceptable that the Trudeau government has not taken a firm position on the arbitrary arrests, terrible policing, torture and politically motivated imprisonment perpetrated against dissident artists, journalists and activists in Cuba… If we, as Canadians, “We are friends of the Cuban people, so we should listen to their voices,” said the Conservative Party senator.
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