Mayelín Carrasco Álvarez, the mother of three who was detained this Wednesday in Río Cauto (Granma), for protesting against hunger, has been transferred by the regime's political police of Miguel Díaz-Canel to Bayamo, as reported to CiberCuba by José Daniel Ferrer, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), who is closely following this case.
Shortly before being "probably" sent to the provincial operations center of State Security in the capital of Granma, the woman, 47 years old and a resident of the rural town of Guamo Viejo (Río Cauto, Granma), had to be attended to after fainting during the interrogation she underwent after being forcibly dragged from the upper part of the Ángel Fría square in Río Cauto by a political police officer and a member of the provincial government of the Communist Party, as this platform has learned.
Following Mayelín Carrasco Álvarez's first transfer to a hospital, her closest circle fears that the political police intend to label her as "crazy" to justify that we are not witnessing a peaceful protest against hunger, but rather dealing with a person with mental health issues.
Mayelín Carrasco protested not only about the lack of food and milk but also about the shortage of fuel (bright light and alcohol) for cooking. "I am in a square defending my rights," she said, under the watchful gaze of two men who wanted to get her out of there but were unsure how to do it, as neighbors began to gather around, attentively listening to the speech of this brave mother.
She assured from her podium that she had told her family she knew her actions would have consequences. "Today I told my mom that I knew they were going to take me to prison," she commented, aware that the repression of the Communist Party of Cuba ignores rights, mothers, and hunger.
"They took our eggs away. They've taken everything from us. Enough with the lies and deceit. When I get down from here, I'm going to prison with my head held high," he insisted in front of the neighbors of Río Cauto who were watching, whispering, but did not join the protest.
"Without food, one cannot work, and without food, one cannot go to school. They have taken everything from us. I will leave here when the police come to get me. I have three children. Here they are. Where is the revolution that Fidel left us and the revolution that Raul left us? There is no revolution anymore because everything has collapsed," she pointed out.
And that was the end of her speech because they dragged her away. "Let her speak"; "Hey, let her go, that’s abuse," the neighbors shouted while the woman was being forcefully suppressed.
To justify what happened, the government of Río Cauto claimed on social media that the woman was provided with temporary housing made of "wood and zinc" and state job offers that she declined. This local agency did not mention that the salary from those jobs is not enough to cover even a week's worth of food.
According to officials from the Communist Party in that municipality of Granma, Mayelín Carrasco's protest is "unacceptable" because she was assigned a hectare of land in Guamo Viejo to cultivate but never showed up at Agriculture to accept the land grant.
The video of the protest shows that this Cuban mother expressed herself verbally and peacefully, and that the only proven violence was that exerted by the political police and the local government to detain her.
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