María Isabel Breto has not had peace since her son Marco Antonio Alfonso Breto, 24 years old, was imprisoned for participating in the protests on July 12, 2021, in the Havana neighborhood of La Güinera.
This Friday, the organization Justicia 11J published its testimony as part of the "Women Who Sustain the Struggle" campaign, in which it denounces the systematic harassment it has suffered since then.
"My son didn't kill, didn't steal, didn't violate anyone, he shouldn't be in prison," the mother states in the video shared by the organization.
Marco Antonio was 19 years old when he was arrested following the 11J protests. The Prosecutor's Office requested a 15-year prison sentence for sedition, although the People's Municipal Tribunal of Diez de Octubre sentenced him to nine years, a penalty that was later reduced to five years of corrective work with internment.
In November 2022, during a prison leave, he managed to escape and remained hidden in Cuba. Months later, he attempted to reach the United States by sea, but the boat was intercepted and he ended up in the Bahamas.
Upon learning that he would be deported to Cuba, he escaped from a migration detention center in Nassau and remained hidden for approximately a month before being recaptured.
He was sentenced to eight months in prison in that country. His lawyer requested political asylum from the Bahamian authorities and from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, but the request was not successful.
On February 2, 2024, the Bahamas deported him to Cuba. He was first transferred to Villa Marista —the headquarters of State Security in Havana— and then to the Combinado del Este prison, where he remains detained according to the Cubalex registry.
Her mother recounts that the regime not only deprived her of her job, but also subjected her to threatening calls at any hour of the morning.
"They fired me from my job. They called me every five minutes and threatened me: 'We're going to get you, we're going to torture you, we know where you are anyway,' and they wouldn't let me sleep, they wouldn't let me live," he declared.
When she went to see her son in Villa Marista after two years without contact, the authorities prevented her from touching him. "They didn't let me hug my son after two years of not seeing him. They told me: just look at him, don't touch him, don't hug him," she recounted. "I suffered a lot, but I didn't shed a tear; I was very strong."
The cruelest reprisal, according to the report, is directed specifically at Marco Antonio: the agents warn him that if his mother speaks out or publicly denounces anything, "it will be worse for you."
"Since my son has been imprisoned, I have no peace, no tranquility. Emotionally, I am not the same person," María Isabel confessed.
The case is part of the campaign "Women Who Sustain the Struggle", launched by Justicia 11J on the fifth anniversary of 11J, which documents 389 acts of repression against 106 women family members of political prisoners between July 2021 and October 2026.
On Thursday, Justicia 11J, along with other organizations, sent an open letter to the Federation of Cuban Women demanding that they speak out against these reprisals and recognize the documented practices, including forced nudity and sexual coercion against the family members of political prisoners, as gender-based violence.
"Mothers who demand justice should not be punished for doing so. Their voices also deserve protection and recognition," stated Justicia 11J.
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