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Bárbara Farrat Guillén, a Cuban mother who sold peanuts on the street to feed her son, posted a message on Facebook this Monday directly addressing Miguel Díaz-Canel, in which she describes how the arrest of Jonathan Torres Farrat transformed her from a humble woman into an tireless activist.
"Canel, when you stole my son from me, I was just a simple Cuban selling peanuts to feed my child. You took him away from me, you kidnapped him, and he suffered both physical and mental abuse," wrote Farrat in her post, accompanied by two photographs: one showing her selling peanuts alongside her son, and another in which she holds a sign demanding "Freedom for Jonathan Torres Farrat" and asking the EFE agency to cover the trials.
The mother acknowledged that at first the repression broke her internally: "I won't deny that at the beginning I felt so shattered that I couldn't eat or sleep. And I have evidence of what I'm writing."
However, the pain turned into strength. "You brought out of me what I always had in excess, I just never needed it before, but since I gave birth to it, it has always been there, which was a pair of well-placed ovaries," she challenged the Cuban ruler, closing her message with a statement that sums up years of struggle: "Even if you kill me, there will always be freedom for all our brave brothers and for our people."
Jonathan Torres Farrat was 17 years old when he was arrested on August 13, 2021, weeks after participating in the protests on July 11 of that year on Diez de Octubre Avenue in Havana, the largest popular demonstrations in Cuba in over sixty years.
Accused of sedition, the young man spent more than nine months in prison, during which his mother reported that he suffered physical and mental abuse and was denied medical attention on several occasions. He was released on May 25, 2022, when Bárbara confirmed in tears: "It was possible."
The relief was short-lived. On January 23, 2023, the Provincial Court of Havana sentenced Jonathan to four years of limited freedom for the crime of sedition, the lightest penalty in a collective trial where 14 other protesters received sentences of up to 13 years, totaling 75 years of prison among the 15 accused.
After hearing the verdict, Bárbara noted that the sentence did not mean the end of the harassment: "From today on, my son will be monitored every week, he will have to go in and sign every week. It’s a way of continuing the oppression, of keeping the misery on top of you."
The struggle of Bárbara Farrat has come at an enormous personal cost. She refused to testify as a witness for the prosecution in the trial against her own son in November 2022, reported systematic harassment by State Security and witnessed how her neighbors were investigated for signing a letter to Díaz-Canel requesting Jonathan's release. In April 2024, the roof of her home nearly completely collapsed and she had to request public assistance to rebuild it.
The four-year limited freedom sentence imposed in January 2023, if fully served, would conclude in January 2027.
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