Cuba’s communist regime this week sentenced 22-year-old Mayelin Rodríguez Prado to 15 years in prison for filming a peaceful protest in Nuvitas City in August 2022.
Rodriguez Prado declared Along with a group of more than a dozen Cubans who also took part in the Nuevitas protests, they received a combined 15-year prison term, the highest of any group, for “continuing enemy propaganda” and “incitement.” Ta.
The 22-year-old Cuban was arrested hours after the Nuvitas protests in August 2022. In the protests, hundreds of Cubans peacefully protested against the Castro regime, demanding an end to months of near-endless daily power outages and other inhumane conditions.
Rodriguez Prado filmed the protests in Nuvitas and published the footage on his social media accounts. One of his videos was livestreamed by Rodriguez Prado. Indicated Cuban police officers beat Cuban national Jose Armando Torrente and three 11-year-old girls, including Torrente’s daughter.
Videos of the girls explaining the situation were also posted on social media. One of the girls, believed to be Torrente’s daughter, testified that she tried to fight the officers herself to protect her father.
“I was clinging to my father, she was clinging to him, and the police had to beat us to arrest him,” the girl said. Said. “They hit me, so I hit them.”
While serving her sentence at Granja Cinco, a maximum-security women’s prison in Camaguey, Rodriguez Prado was able to speak to the NGO Rapporteur Council for Human Rights (CRDHC).
In the interview, published On Thursday, according to Marti Noticias, Rodríguez Prado accused Castro’s prosecutors of presenting some falsified evidence at his trial. She also accused prosecutors of denying the officers’ physical abuse of minors, despite video evidence she produced. Cops also claimed that she filmed the girls without their parents’ permission.
“They say no, that’s a lie, that I did it while the girl’s mother and aunt were away,” Rodriguez Prado said. “Her mother was also there. She was the one who directly confirmed that I asked her for her permission.”
“At 9:30 p.m. on the day I was arrested, I was said to have said something at government headquarters, inciting people to take out stones. I was in prison at the time,” she said. continued.
Martí Noticias newspaper reported that Rodríguez Prado said he felt calm despite the long sentence.
“The newspapers report that it is no coincidence that I played a leading role in the case. I am calm, but this will not last for 15 years, ”she said.
During the interview, Rodríguez Prado warned about the situation of another person sentenced by the Castro regime for peacefully protesting in Nuvitas state. She claimed that Fray Pascual Claro Validares, a Cuban man sentenced to 10 years in prison for “sedition,” tried to commit suicide after learning of the sentence. According to Rodríguez Prado, Claro Validares has already been returned to Cerámica Roja prison, where he is completing his sentence.
Rodriguez Prado is among a group of more than a dozen Cubans sentenced in connection with the Nuvitas protests.Among other Cuban nationals who received long sentences: stand Jose Armando Torrente Muñoz was sentenced to 14 years in prison for charges including “incitement,” “assault,” “resistance,” and “obstruction.”
“We need to visualize the situation we are in and what we are facing,” Torrente Muñoz said, according to the report.
Yenis Altra del Sol, a Cuban national, was charged with “propaganda of the enemy of a continuing nature.”Patria y Vida” (“Homeland and Life”) during the Nuevita protests.
Patria y Vida This is one of the most iconic slogans of the modern Cuban anti-communist movement and was prominent in the historic Cuban anti-communist movement. July 2021 In protests, tens of thousands of Cubans took to the streets in dozens of Cuban cities to demand an end to 60 years of communism.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan writer who chronicles life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
