The writer and former political prisoner Ángel Santiesteban-Prats published a strong condemnation on Wednesday of the State Security's repression against his wife, independent journalist Camila Acosta, following her arbitrary arrest and the condition in which her phone was returned to her.
"What a level of shamelessness from a regime that showcases its constant abuses and injustices against its citizens, whom it keeps in absolute misery, while they indulge in fine dining and pools, and their children travel the world and study at expensive universities with the money of everyday Cubans, who have also created economic empires, flaunting in front of their people in luxurious cars, as a mockery it is," he expressed on Facebook.
Acosta, a reporter for CubaNet and correspondent in Havana for the Spanish newspaper ABC, was arrested on Tuesday around 11:45 a.m. while heading to the veterinarian with her cat in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality.
Two plainclothes agents and two uniformed police officers handcuffed her with her hands behind her back and forcibly placed her in a patrol car, where she remained for about half an hour under the sun before being transferred to a cell in poor hygienic conditions at the Playa police station.
They repeatedly denied her the opportunity to call her family for more than eight hours, until she was released around 8:00 PM the same day.
Upon recovering her device, Acosta reported on Facebook what happened: "This is how my phone was returned to me: completely unusable. They poured some kind of green liquid on it, perhaps some acid. This is how the Cuban intelligence services operate: like vile criminals. They broke it because they fear my work, because they fear the truth."
Santiesteban-Prats shared that post and responded with an extensive denunciation: "How much moral depravity can exist in individuals who call themselves State Security and act as hired assassins? How can one justify five years of study and graduating as 'lawyers', only to end up licensed criminals who attack those with different thoughts and are capable of robbing, destroying their means of communication, imprisoning them, blackmailing, beating, and threatening them with death?"
The writer added that an agent openly acknowledged having threatened her repeatedly: "They do this with complete impunity, believing themselves to be the masters of all Cubans. And shamelessly, they can tell a woman 'yes, I have threatened you five times.' It is an immense cowardice that turns them into little wet chicks in the middle of a storm. In the end, they demonstrate that all dictatorships are the same."
The detention originates from a video recorded on October 28, in which Acosta documented a plainclothes man who was preventing her from leaving her home without showing a court order or identifying himself.
During the interrogation, an officer identifying himself as a lieutenant colonel invoked Article 393.1 of the Cuban Penal Code and threatened the journalist with up to five years in prison if she continued recording those who were watching her.
Acosta refused to sign the warning notice and stated that he will continue documenting: "It's the only evidence I have for tomorrow if something happens to me."
The regime is now seeking to prosecute her criminally for that same reason, although as of this Thursday, no charges have been officially filed nor has she been condemned.
Santiesteban-Prats warned that repression has the opposite effect: "No matter how many acts of abuse they commit, they will only achieve the hatred of the people, as even neighbors I didn't know would knock on my door or call me on the phone to express their solidarity or their concerns about Camila."
And he concluded: "We cannot kill the dream of living in a free Cuba, where the human rights of citizens are respected, regardless of their ideology. Where there are no political prisoners or those persecuted for thinking differently."
The writer is facing his own criminal proceedings after being accused along with three other Masons of illegal currency trafficking for exchanging 300 dollars in the informal market to purchase powdered milk intended for the elderly at the National Masonic Nursing Home Llansó.
The People's Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre, in Havana, scheduled the oral trial against the four defendants for this Thursday at 9:00 a.m. The prosecution is seeking two years of restricted freedom and a fine of 20,000 pesos.
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