Two protesters from Caimanera are released from prison

Two of the protesters arrested in May during the popular protests in Caimanera, municipality of Guantánamo, were released by the Cuban authorities.

Rodolfo Álvarez GonzálezandFreddy Sarquiz González They were released this Monday, according to statements from relatives of the detainees to the independent news outletMartí News.

"The lawyer just called me to inform me that Rodolfo Álvarez was immediately released and Freddy was released with a fine," Victoria Martínez Valdivia, mother of Luis Miguel Alarcón, who is still captive, told the site.

For her part, Gloria Sarquiz González, sister of Freddy Sarquiz González, indicated that her brother was released on bail.

Luis Miguel Alarcón Martínez and Daniel Álvarez González are still detained under police investigation in the Guantánamo provincial prison.

“They remain imprisoned, they were not approved for a change of measure. They are awaiting trial, but the date is unknown. The lawyer told me that they do not have a tax request yet,” said Martínez Valdivia.

The woman highlighted that the defense lawyer has requested a change of precautionary measure three times, from preventive detention to house arrest, the Prosecutor's Office has rejected the request.

This release is added to that ofFelipe Octavio Correa Martínez and Yandris Pelier Matos, released in June and taken home.

Pelier Matos had a fractured forehead and suffers from epileptic seizures and Correa Martínez, 27, is mentally retarded.

Six people were arrested violently by uniformed officers of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), the first five detainees have been investigated by State Security, for their participation in the protest on May 6, in which hundreds of residents of Caimanera took to the streets to demand “freedom” and attention from the authorities to food shortages, blackouts and the crisis of public health services.

The protesters of this protest are accused of the alleged crime of “public disorder”, with Preparatory Phase File number 227-23.

The Cuban regime blamedthree supposed drunks of the massive protest, but Cuban civil society mobilized around the claims expressed by the population of Caimanera and denounced the repression and arbitrary detention of the protesters.