Hundreds Behind Bars Two Months After Historic Cuban Protests

Havana, Sept 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Sep, 2021 ) :For two months, Yunior Consuegra, 24, has been locked up along with hundreds of others arrested at historic anti-government protests in Cuba on July 11. His mother has seen him only once, and is beside herself with worry.

When she did manage to see him six days after his arrest, Mayda Yudith Sotolongo told AFP, her son had been "beaten" and had "bruises on his arms and back." The young man, a car mechanic, was born deaf in one hear and has a brain tumor. He told his mother by telephone that he had contracted the coronavirus in prison.

Consuegra is accused of public disorder, but has not yet been brought before a judge.

Her son, insisted Sotolongo, had gone out on the street that day "out of curiosity", and observing riot police clamping down on protesters, tried to make his way back home safely, but failed.

She herself spent four days in jail for insisting to see her son, telling police that if, to have information about him she had to go to prison herself, they should arrest her.

They did, but this brought Sotolongo no closer to her son.

From her humble home on the outskirts of Havana, the 50-year-old nurse has little option left but to pray for an end to her "worst nightmare".

Consuegra's story is far from unique.

Cuban forces arrested 949 people, according to the Cubalex rights group, in a massive clampdown on the biggest protests to hit the communist island since the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959.

In a spontaneous outburst of anti-government sentiment, thousands took to the streets on July 11 in some 50 cities and towns, chanting "Freedom!" "Down with the dictatorship!" and "We are hungry!" Cubalex says 437 remain behind bars.

Charges include contempt, public disorder, vandalism and propagation of the coronavirus epidemic for allegedly marching without face masks.

The government has not provided detention numbers, but says 62 people had been tried by August 5. Sixty-one were found guilty and given sentences ranging from eight months to a year.

Forty-five have lodged appeals.

In the city of Santa Clara in central Cuba, the family of Randy Arteaga, 32, fret about his fate. He is accused of the crime of resistance.

"We are worried. He has been in prison for almost two months, without a trial date," his niece Misaday Arteaga, 21, told AFP.

"He has a six-year-old daughter."There are scores of similar testimonies, but several families contacted by AFP did not wish to speak for fear of reprisals.