Cuban shot by police during 11J protests seeks justice

A Cuban who was injured by police during the crackdown on peaceful protesters on July 11, 2021, is seeking justice despite harassment from authorities.

Osiris José Puerto Terry, self-employed worker, 49 years old,He received two gunshot wounds during the 11J demonstrations of 2021 on the corner of Toyo, in the Diez de Octubre municipality.

That day, he returned from selling ice cream bites around 4:30 pm and sat with some neighbors on the Calzada de Diez de Octubre to drink rum, when the crowd was already protesting against the government. Soon thetrucks from the anti-riot brigades and began to close the streets.

"That was a battlefield. Stones flew from one side to the other. That lasted about 30 or 40 minutes. When the protesters retreated due to the police charge and the presence of mobilized supporters of the government, around 5:00 p.m. Late, with the streets full of stones and trash cans turned upside down, I decide to return to my house, a few blocks from where I was," he toldAmericas Newspaper.

Osiris was already on his block when he saw a group of police officers who were shooting at the population with firearms. An officer fired a first shot and he hid behind a pillar where the bullet ricocheted.

"A neighbor opens the door of the building where I was trying to seek refuge. When I go to enter, the policeman fires a second shot that hits me in the right foot, above the tibia, almost reaching the kneecap. I fall in the floor, I can't stand up, and the officer fires a third shot that hits me in the back. I begin to ask for help, a neighbor of the building comes out and shouts: 'It's Osiris who is lying there.' two men help me, give me first aid and take me inside the building," he explained.

Thanks to a neighbor who helped him, Puerto Terry is alive today. The man put him in a car and took him to the Calixto García hospital.

"Before entering the hospital, the police who were there beat me. When the doctors and surgeons from group number four who were on duty on July 11 arrive, the police ask them: 'Are you going to save that counterrevolutionary?' ", he denounced.

At the hospital he had emergency surgery, he had a pneumothorax that affected his breathing. They had to open his abdomen to see if the bullet had hit any organs. ButThey could not remove the projectile from his back: it is still lodged in his right rib. A month later he was discharged.

"From the first moment I made the complaint and delivered three documents to the police, the Prosecutor's Office and the Council of State, demanding that they recognize civil responsibility for all the damage they caused me," he said.

Osiris hired a lawyer to represent him in the process. In the end, the Prosecutor's Office only gave him a document alleging that the two non-commissioned officers who injured him were doing their job. But he assures that those two non-commissioned officers were not the ones who shot him.

"That's a lie. A captain from the specialized police shot me," he stressed.

Due to the severity of the injuries, OsirisHe has 18 months of medical expertise. That is why he claims monetary compensation for the expenses incurred.

"But everything is 'rattle' and 'grind'. TheProsecutor's Office argues that they cannot locate the officer who shot me", said.

Osiris's fight for justice has put him in the crosshairs of State Security.

As he explained, for a year and a half he has had to go weekly with his wife to the police unit in his neighborhood to sign a commitment document stating that he will not get involved in politics. Furthermore, every time State Security determines, he has to spend three or four days without leaving the house.

Despite all these arbitrariness and abuses, he is determined to see justice done.

After the events of July 11 and the violent repression unleashed by the regime, the Cuban Prosecutor's Office announced that there was only one fatality: Diuvis Laurencio Tejeda, a 36-year-old resident of the Havana neighborhood of La Güinera, who was killed by a gunshot from the second lieutenant of the Police Yoennis Pelegrín Hernández.

In August 2021, the body determined thatthe officer acted "in self-defense", which is why he did not press charges against him.