The wife of Ernesto Ricardo Medina - a member of the Cuban independent audiovisual project El4tico - published an emotional video on Facebook in which she narrates the sadness of their little girl Emma, who is almost four years old, expressing her only wish for her father's return, who has been detained by State Security in Holguín for 46 days.
In the video, which has over 31,000 views, the girl is seen, when she was just a few months old, enjoying herself in her crib while her dad plays with her.
The accompanying text, presented as if written by the young girl, poignantly summarizes with heartbreaking starkness what the repression of the Cuban regime means for a family.
"Hello, Daddy: It goes without saying that I miss you a lot. The days go by, and I don’t understand why you’re not home. Mom tells me you went to kill some pigs for some policemen," says Doris Santiesteban Batista, Emma's mother.
Doris enumerates each absence with precision: "It’s been 46 days without a hug from Dad. It’s been 46 days without a kiss from Dad. It’s been 46 days without Dad’s warmth. It’s been 46 days since I’ve danced a single ballet song with my Dad."
In the end, she voices her daughter's only wish: "The only thing I ask for is to have my dad at home with me, to have my complete family."
Ernesto Ricardo Medina and his companion Kamil Zayas Pérez were arrested on February 6 during a nighttime operation in which State Security agents raided their homes and confiscated computers, phones, cameras, and audiovisual production equipment.
The authorities accuse them of "propaganda against the constitutional order" and "incitement to commit crimes" for the critical content they published in El4tico, a digital platform that exposes the economic crisis and the management of the regime.
Doris Santiesteban described the situation as a "family punishment" of the dictatorship.
In statements to El Toque on March 19, he noted: "Emma and Ernesto are very close. Sometimes the girl tells me that she doesn't want to eat because she misses him. Our routine has been disrupted; we are emotionally connected, but it affects us all. I don't know how to explain this to the girl."
The Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Holguín confirmed the provisional imprisonment of both on February 12, rejecting a habeas corpus petition submitted by the activist Yanet Rodríguez Sánchez, in a hearing marked by a heavy police presence and cuts to electricity and Internet.
As of this March 25th—day 47 of detention—neither of them has been brought to trial.
The case has generated a wave of national and international solidarity. Artists like Melendi, Haydée Milanés, Ulises Toirac, and Luis Alberto García have joined the campaigns #FreeEl4tico and #TodosSomosEl4tico.
The U.S. State Departmentdemanded the release of those detained and threatened visa sanctions. The Inter-American Press Association described the detentions as a violation of the right to freedom of expression.
From prison, Kamil Zayas managed to send a message on February 21 that summarizes the spirit of the project: "What started as a small room has been turned into a huge house. It has been worth it."
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