The Cuban mother Mayelín Carrasco Álvarez, detained after protesting against hunger and misery in Cuba in the Ángel Fría square in Río Cauto (Granma), was released this Saturday, March 8, as confirmed by opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer and activists from the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) in the municipality.
It was precisely these collaborators from the organization led by Ferrer who approached the home of Mayelín Carrasco Álvarez, in the town of Guamo Viejo (Río Cauto), to confirm that, as rumored in Río Cauto, she had already been released, after spending three days (the maximum 72 hours stipulated by law in cases of detention) under arrest and interrogation by the political police.
The detention of Mayelín Carrasco Álvarez did not come without consequences for the regime, which had to deal with a collective uprising. The woman publicly complained that they had taken away their eggs, milk, and that neither alcohol nor electricity was reaching the store. In other words, she spoke of facts, and the only opinion she expressed was when she questioned where the revolution left by Fidel and Raúl was. "Everything has fallen apart," she lamented.
The neighbors understood that he had committed no crime and had told no lies, and they took to the streets to demand his release.
Although Unpacu activists tried to have her send a message to the Cubans who have been following her case, Mayelín Carrasco's family prevented her from speaking out of fear that she would be imprisoned again. In fact, after her forcible detention, she was transferred to Bayamo, where she was interrogated.
It was precisely his closest circle that took to the streets in Guamo Viejo the day after his arrest. Images of the townspeople, about 600 inhabitants, protesting with signs in the streets spread to Río Cauto. Dozens and dozens of residents from Río Cauto took to the streets on Friday to demand the release of a 47-year-old mother, unemployed and responsible for three children, whom the local government has only been able to assist by providing a "temporary house made of wood and tin," as they themselves stated in an official statement.
Amid continuous blackouts, the first secretary of the Communist Party in Granma traveled to Río Cauto in an attempt to silence the protest (silenced by an Internet cut-off), and the only thing she could come up with was to mention, as an achievement of the regime, that they had brought electricity to a municipality that has shown it is divided in two: those who are on edge at a visit from Díaz-Canel and those who demand justice for a neighbor unjustly imprisoned.
Mayelín Carrasco was willing to speak with the activists of Unpacu, but it was her family that intervened and prevented her from speaking about what she has experienced over the last 72 hours for fear that she would be sent to prison for good, leaving her three children unprotected.
The conditions under which this Cuban mother has been released are unknown, including whether she has been fined or faced any other type of sanction. It is also unclear if she will be taken to trial later on the charge of subverting the constitutional order, which is what has been alleged against another resident of the town, Alexander Verdecia Rodríguez, coordinator of the Unpacu in Río Cauto.
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