The Cuban academic Alina Bárbara López Hernández gave details about the violent police detention she suffered last Tuesday, June 18th in the morning while she was traveling from Matanzas to Havana.
The teacher was released on the afternoon of that same day, and her daughter, who remained active on Facebook informing about the case, said that, together with Jenny Pantoja Torres, her mother had to go to the hospital to be examined for the blows she received from the Cuban police officers.
One must be truly sick in mind and soul to beat two older and defenseless women. All the contempt from honest people towards 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 the Bacunayagua checkpoint, where the police stopped the car she was traveling in and demanded that she get into a patrol car without giving her explanations or showing her an arrest warrant.
"You know you have to get on", said the teacher, referring to the words that were used in a broken way by an officer of the National Revolutionary Police.
"She grabbed me by the shoulders and performed a sweeping technique with her feet and mine, which is a martial arts move, and gave me a strong push. So, I was left completely in the air, destabilized, and fell from that height," she recounted.
The academic emphasized that she received a very strong blow to the head, and she was saved by having gone off the road and ending up on the gravel of the roadside. Otherwise, she could have suffered a skull fracture.
"When I fell, I felt, besides the pain, as if the sounds were fading... for a moment my vision blurred and I felt a taste of blood in my throat, I mean I didn't bleed, but I felt like something there was injured. I didn't lose consciousness, but I was very disoriented, stunned, because it was a hard blow," she emphasized.
Later, the activist recounted a series of violent acts in which they and the officers were involved.
Upon arriving at the police station, she remembers that the officer who had used all her strength to subdue them said, "I hope you touch me again, because I will punch your face in."
However, according to Cuban authorities, Alina Bárbara attacked the officer in the performance of her duties, a claim that the academic vehemently denied.
She assures that the Cuban police took advantage of two important aspects very well. The first one was having been stopped before the Bacunayagua bridge, because at this checkpoint there are cameras and everything is recorded.
And secondly, the intention to involve her in a new common process that apparently has no political overtones.
In November of last year, Alina Bárbara was found guilty of the crime of disobedience, after being taken to trial for peacefully protesting with a sign in a park in Matanzas in April of the same year.
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