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The wife of Ernesto Ricardo Medina, one of the creators of the independent Cuban audiovisual project El4tico, shared a heartbreaking account on Facebook this week: during a visit to her husband in prison, their daughter Emma asked her, "Mom, why is dad in jail?".
Doris Santiesteban Batista, who identifies herself on social media as Doris Sant Bat, posted an emotional testimony on her Facebook profile describing the moment when the girl, around three or four years old, asked her a question in front of her own father.
"I had to ask her to repeat it so I could be sure she really asked me that," Doris wrote. Looking at Ernesto, she replied to Emma: "Mom, Dad is not in jail; he is on a mission from God to turn bad people into good ones through beautiful deeds. He will be home with us soon."
The visit included a birthday celebration inside the prison, with cake and ice cream, as recounted by Doris herself.
"I couldn't help the lump in my throat. Whenever I say goodbye, I try to be strong, but this visit was very emotional," he wrote.
Doris admitted that she had no answer for her daughter: "I don’t have a clear answer to Emma's question because there isn't one. How can I tell my daughter that her dad is in prison for expressing how he feels, when I actually want Emma to be a girl who isn’t afraid to express or say what she feels?"
Ernesto Ricardo Medina and his companion Kamil Zayas Pérez were detained in the early hours of February 6 during a nighttime operation conducted by State Security in Holguín, where their work equipment was also confiscated: laptop, camera, mobile phone, tripod, and router.
The Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Holguín charged them with the crimes of "propaganda against the constitutional order" and "instigation to commit a crime," charges that can lead to up to nine years in prison. A habeas corpus petition filed on their behalf was rejected by the Provincial Court, which also extended the provisional detention.
At the time of Doris's publication, both young people had been detained for over four months without a trial or a conviction.
Last Monday, Kamil Zayas Pérez managed to send from prison a defiant handwritten statement against the regime, urging Cubans: "The dignified Cuban, who is not afraid to speak his mind, who does not take a step back in this hour of true men."
Ernesto Medina, for his part, refused to record a video of remorse and retraction that agents of State Security allegedly requested from him, according to a letter released by his mother in April.
The case has garnered international attention: the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Inter-American Press Association demanded the immediate release of both individuals, and the U.S. State Department condemned their detention.
Doris closed her post with a phrase that encapsulates the strength with which she faces the situation: "God bless everyone who wishes us harm."
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