The former Cuban political prisoner Angélica Garrido, arrested following the protests of July 11, 2021 (11J), raised her voice at the "Transatlantic Parliamentary Forum for a Free Cuba," held at the European Parliament in Brussels, to recount the abuses she suffered at the hands of the island's communist regime.
"I was subjected to repression, torture, and beatings simply for shouting 'freedom' alongside my sister," expressed Angélica, who denounced the unjust imprisonment of her sister, María Cristina Garrido, the executive director of the Republican Party of Cuba, who is currently incarcerated and a victim of mistreatment.
Garrido described the suffering they both endured, including seven days without food and three days without water, while facing beatings and other humiliations, such as the physical abuse of her sister to force her to shout slogans in favor of the regime, reported the portal Cubanet.
"They urinated on her to make her scream 'Long live Fidel and long live communism,' beating her up, leaving her with lasting effects that she still endures in prison. Many women were sexually assaulted that day. Our children carry psychological scars from the arbitrary arrests that happened in front of them," she exclaimed.
Angélica, who was released last July, and her sister María Cristina Garrido were held in the women’s prison of Guatao for protesting on July 11, 2021, in Quivicán. The regime's courts sentenced them to three and seven years in prison, respectively.
At the forum, which was attended by political leaders and figures such as U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Garrido also expressed that the imprisonment cost her parents their lives, unable to bear the anguish and pain following the incarceration of their daughters.
At the end of the event, participants signed the Brussels Declaration, which calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners and demands that the European Commission suspend its Cooperation Agreement with Cuba due to clear human rights violations.
Rosa María Payá, leader of the civic platform Cuba Decide and organizer of the event, affirmed her commitment to supporting democratic change on the island as the only solution to the crisis.
The forum was an urgent call to the international community to take concrete actions in support of the Cuban people and in rejection of state repression.
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