Cuban mother denounces police beating of her son in Havana

Yindra Elizastigui Jardines, mother of the political prisoner Luis Robles, reported a Cuban police officer for the alleged abuse committed against her other son Lester Fernández Elizastigui during a birthday party in Havana.

"This post is to denounce the mistreatment of my son Lester Fernández Elizastigui by the police officer named Yusdel Posada Cutiño, who is stationed at the police station called Dragones," the woman wrote on her Facebook profile.

According to Yindra, the officer arrived at a birthday party where her son was present on Saturday, July 20, "and without any courtesy he ordered the music to be turned off, and despite the compliance with the order, he used force against my son and hit him."

In her post, the mother states that her son responded to the alleged aggression from the police officer, which resulted in the young man's arrest. "Today, my son's whereabouts are unknown," she expressed.

The woman said she was using her message to accuse the police officer involved of what might happen to her son.

Reports of police abuse in Cuba have become frequent on social media, especially when it involves opponents, their relatives, or political prisoners who raise their voices.

In June, the Cuban academic Alina Bárbara López Hernández was violently arrested by the police while traveling from Matanzas to Havana.

The teacher was released in the afternoon of that same day, and her daughter, who remained active on Facebook raising awareness about the case, said that, along with Jenny Pantoja Torres, her mother had to go to the hospital to be examined for the injuries she received from the Cuban police.

In July 2022, Yindra Elizastigui herself broke the silence on social media to denounce the mistreatment of her son Luis Robles in prison.

In mid-January 2023, he also reported that his son Lester had been detained and was in prison for an alleged case of attempted illegal exit from the country.

Lester was arrested on December 19 when he was with a group of people building a boat in Havana, and he remained imprisoned in the Valle Grande Penitentiary Center.

At that moment, the mother reported that the mistreatment her son received was a result of being Luis Roble's brother.