A Cuban State Security agent approached Abel Alejandro Andrés Navarro, a member of the youth collective Fuera de la Caja Cuba, during a graduation ceremony he had been invited to, and warned him in an intimidating tone that "we were doing well to stop on social media," according to the group itself reported this Thursday on Facebook.
The agent who attended the graduation is the same one who interrogated Abel during the summons on July 2, when State Security detained him and his sister Amanda Beatriz at the PNR Unit of the 10 de Octubre municipality, in Lawton, Havana, significantly exceeding the legal limit of two hours.
What was supposed to be a moment of rest for the young activist turned into a new episode of pressure, this time in a space unrelated to any political context.
The collective took advantage of the statement to clarify that the decrease in their activity on social media is not due to fear: "If we haven't posted videos recently, it's not because we have been intimidated. It is mainly due to a very serious health situation that Mauro's father is experiencing."
At the same time, the group warned that the meeting at the graduation is not an isolated incident: "We have received strange calls, intimidating messages... all part of a systematic harassment campaign," they stated in their post.
Despite everything, Fuera de la Caja Cuba concluded its statement with a declaration that summarizes its position: "Living in this country makes it very difficult for us, but let it be clear: our conviction remains stronger than ever."
Fuera de la Caja Cuba is made up of Karel Daniel Hernández Bosques, Amanda Beatriz Andrés Navarro, Abel Alejandro Andrés Navarro, and Mauro Reigos Pérez, all young people around twenty years old from the Cerro municipality in Havana, who use social media to challenge the regime and expose the realities of the country.
For this reason, the collective has been subjected to an ongoing escalation of repression: disabling of phones by ETECSA, hacking of WhatsApp accounts, intimidating visits to the homes of their family members and direct threats to their parents.
The operation on July 2 was characterized by activists as a deliberate attempt to prevent the group from attending the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States at the residence of the chief diplomatic mission Mike Hammer.
The U.S. Embassy in Havana publicly denounced the repression, and Hammer questioned on social media the State Security's threats against Cubans attending diplomatic events.
The young people also recounted the conditions of the interrogation: the agents pointed to the everyday phrase "until when" as an act of incitement to commit a crime, and Abel was held in what his sister described as "a sort of dungeon".
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