In the lead-up to the fifth anniversary of the protests on July 11, 2021, the head of the U.S. Embassy Mission in Cuba, Mike Hammer, visited several homes in Havana on Friday to hear firsthand the testimonies of parents who have been waiting for five years for the return of their imprisoned children following the historic social upheaval.
The day was marked by scenes of pain and resistance in every home visited, where family members took the opportunity to denounce not only the weight of the sentences but also the harassment they claim to face since then: arbitrary summons, blackmail, job marginalization, and torture.
One of the first meetings was with Wilber Aguilar, father of Walnier Luis Aguilar Rivera, a young man with intellectual disabilities sentenced to 12 years in prison for sedition after participating in the protests in La Güinera, in the Havana municipality of Arroyo Naranjo.
"I wake up at three in the morning, at four in the morning, and I see Walnier's mother sitting there crying for her son, for the youngest in the house, whom we raised with care, respect, and love. They took him from us," Aguilar recounted with evident emotion.
The father insisted that his son merely exercised his right to protest: "All he did was join a demonstration and demand freedom and a dignified life. Not even death will stop us from fighting for Walnier."
Hammer also visited Daymi Albornoz Rodríguez, mother of Yoanky Báez Albornoz, sentenced to 14 years in prison for sedition after participating in the protests at Esquina de Toyo, in the Diez de Octubre municipality.
"My son is imprisoned for telling the truth. Here we have no freedom of expression, and young people are not allowed to say what they think," lamented the mother, who also spoke of the loneliness she claims to face since her son's arrest.
The journey continued at the home of Carlos Martín, father of Dayron Martín Rodríguez, sentenced to 30 years in prison —reduced to 22 on appeal— after recording the protests in La Güinera with his cell phone. His family claims that he suffers from schizophrenia and does not receive adequate medical care at Combinado del Este.
"He spent one day in the Capri police station, seven days in Cien and Aldabó, and from there he was transferred to the Combinado del Este. Since then, he hasn't been released. In the trial, he was sentenced to 30 years," his father recalled.
The last meeting was with Jenny Taboada, mother of Duannis León Taboada, who is serving 14 years in prison for sedition. The woman described these years as a period of constant suffering that has transcended her son's imprisonment.
"It has been 14 years of condemnation for a young man who never had a criminal record. It is prolonged suffering, filled with torture, summons, blackmail, and being marginalized, because we cannot even work," he stated.
When asked what keeps her going, her answer was direct: "Hope, a mother's love for her child, and the support of so many people like you."
This visit is part of an intensive agenda of close diplomacy that Hammer has maintained since his arrival in Havana in November 2024, which includes meetings with political prisoners and visits to various sectors of Cuban civil society.
In parallel, the United States Embassy in Cuba issued a message this Saturday demanding the immediate release of all political prisoners, specifically mentioning the case of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, whose five-year sentence ended on July 9 but remains missing under the regime's control.
"Five long years have passed, and we continue to insist on the release of all those unjustly imprisoned for simply exercising their fundamental right to express themselves as they did on July 11, 2021," stated the diplomatic mission.
On the fifth anniversary of the social outbreak, the organization Justicia 11J reports that there are 338 prisoners directly linked to the protests of 2021, within a total of 1,281 political prisoners documented by Prisoners Defenders in Cuba.
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