Cuban scholar Alina Bárbara López Hernández provided details about the violent police detention she experienced on the morning of Tuesday, June 18, while traveling from Matanzas to Havana.
The teacher was released in the afternoon of the same day, and her daughter, who actively shared news about the case on Facebook, said that, along with Jenny Pantoja Torres, her mother had to go to the hospital to be examined for the injuries inflicted by the Cuban police.
"You must be truly sick in mind and spirit to strike two older, unarmed women. All the contempt from honest people is directed at you and your actions," wrote Cecilia Borroto on Facebook.
Her mother, Alina Bárbara, recalled in an interview for the site CubaXCuba, of which she is the founder and co-director, that she was arrested long before reaching the Bacunayagua checkpoint, where the police stopped the car she was traveling in and demanded that she get into a patrol car without providing any explanations or showing her a warrant for her arrest.
"You know you have to get on," said the teacher, which were the words used in a disjointed manner by an officer of the National Revolutionary Police.
“She grabbed me by the shoulders and executed a sweeping technique with her feet and mine, which is a martial arts move, and then gave me a strong push. I was left completely in the air, destabilized, and fell from that height,” she recounted.
The scholar emphasized that she suffered a severe blow to the head and that it was fortunate she had veered off the road and was on the gravel by the curb; otherwise, she could have sustained a fracture in her skull.
"When I fell, I felt, in addition to the pain, that the sounds were fading away... for a moment my vision blurred and I tasted blood in my throat; I didn't actually bleed, but it felt like something there was damaged. I didn't lose consciousness, but I was very disoriented, dazed, because it was a hard impact," she emphasized.
Following that, the activist recounted a series of violent incidents involving both themselves and the officers.
Upon arriving at the police station, he recalls that the officer who had used all her strength to subdue him said, "I hope you touch me again because I will smash your face with a punch."
However, according to Cuban authorities, Alina Bárbara assaulted the officer while performing her duties, a claim that the academic vehemently denied.
She claims that the Cuban police took full advantage of two important aspects. The first was stopping before the Bacunayagua bridge, as there are cameras at this checkpoint and everything gets recorded.
And two, the intention of involving her in a new common process that apparently has no political implications.
In November of last year, Alina Bárbara was found guilty of the crime of disobedience after being tried for peacefully protesting with a sign in a park in Matanzas in April of that same year.
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