On February 8 of this year, at approximately 9 in the morning, a situation developed in the Horacio Rodríguez neighborhood of Manzanillo, Cuba, involving a 29 year-old young woman named Yaymari Ramírez Tamayo and her two children, the youngest of whom, a 2 year-old, who has been operated, with kidney and circulatory diseases, and the other one, a 7 year-old, also suffering from a nervous illness.
The young woman used to live in the Camagüey province, had a marital problem and was kicked out of the house, with her two children, and was taken off the ration card. She goes to Manzanillo, to her mother’s house, and upon arrival she finds the latter cannot help her because she is in no condition to have her in her hut.
Yaymari found out that in the neighborhood’s PNR Sector there is an empty locale and decides to enter with her two children. The following day, when the Sector Chief realizes there were some people living there, he goes there and tells them they must leave or, if it were necessary, he would demolish the locale with a sledgehammer and would kick her out along with the children as if they were a soccer ball. People who were nearby and were witnessing what was happening quickly went to warn us so we would take pictures and not allow any kind of abuse against this family.
When the Sector Chief saw that we were taking pictures he phoned officials of the State Insecurity apparatus and they appeared with three patrol cars and a Jeep and arrested us. They released us six hours later, under threats, with a $30.00 fine each and a letter warning us that if they found us around there they were going to jail us for four years for dangerous behavior and contempt for authority.
We want to clearly state that at no time did the CID leaders show weakness or fear, on the contrary we remained firm because we knew that as much as they wanted to arrest and threaten us they could never take away the pictures we took of them. Also, we told them that they could shoot us or jail us but we would never allow abuse such as this to happen in our country, as long as our party exists.
We, the CID delegation in Manzanillo, along with a group of people from the same neighborhood, provided aid to the young Yaymari Ramírez and her two children, delivering food, water and clothing. We will not allow any disrespect or injustice against this family who are only struggling for a place to live. We will remain here, day and night, fighting until a solution is found to this case. Yaymari said: “I thank the CID activists and the neighbors who are supporting me.”
The corrupt Manzanillo Council Chief said he was going to look for a solution.
By Susana del Carmen Barzaga Guisado, Defender of the People in Manzanillo
Homeland, People and Liberty! The struggle continues!
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