Three Cuban Women Under the Boots of Crime

Three Cuban Women Under the Boots of Crime / Luis Felipe Rojas
Posted on October 22, 2013

"On October 4, they had me in a choke hold, it was the Special Brigade.
There were men, I was talking to one of the big men, they took me to the
door of the house, inside the house. They came with their uniforms. Some
men dressed in overalls painted the house in asphalt, five times they
have done it, without taking into account that there are minors here,"
that is the testimony of Damaris Moya Portieles, President of the
Central Opposition Coalition, resident of Santa Clara.

Violence against women, dressed in white or not; with or without
gladioli in hand has become recurrent all over the island. It has to do
not only with the hate sessions like the Acts of Repudiation, the
physical mistreatment and the torture are "a piece of cake" in the
containment measures against the opposition. Damaris herself relates:
"Some months ago I was admitted into the Arnaldo Milian Castro hospital,
the result of a beating that the State Security officers dealt me," she
says, and offers the name of the oppressors: "Yuniel Monteagudo Reina,
Erik Francis Aquino Yera and Ayor vigil Alvares, plus Pablo Echemendia
Pineda," she concludes.

Fourteen Sundays Under Rocks and Words

She is a hardworking woman and always likes to prepare the best dishes
for her family; one day she decided to do it for the poor. Caridad
Burunate hosts each week in her home some twenty elderly and destitute
people to give them a little ration of food. She does it under the
project "Capitan Tondique," and the name of the anti-Castro guerrilla
fighter has cost Burunate, in Colon, Matanzas, the well-known acts of
repudiation, beatings, arrests and the painting of her house black.

"The mobs prepare, they are criminals, and they cuff us, fight us. Even
prisoners have been brought from the Aguica prison, because they tell
them that they are going to give them passes, they even kick us. When we
arrive at my house from the walks (every Sunday with the Women in
White), they wait for us with bags of rocks, eggs, they even painted my
house because they wrote, "Long live Fidel, Long live the Revolution"
and I wrote to them on top of that: "Down with the Revolution" and "Down
with Fidel."

The president of the People's Power, Dignora Zenea Sotolongo, brought a
jeep full of eggs, which are non-existent, people do not have them to
eat, and they threw them at my house; and of course, she has almost all
her family in Miami. This house they bathed in eggs and asphalt. They
give eggs to children for them to throw. I made myself an opponent
because we have no rights, and because I have always enjoyed expressing
what I feel, I did not do it just for myself, but also to help others,"
she concludes.

A Violent Beginning

Tania Oliva Chacon resides in Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba. She
received the first beating "in March of this year," when she joined the
Ladies in White. "On October 10 I found myself at a friend's house and
we were about to watch the class they broadcast on TV every day, but the
house was surrounded since early morning, and when we were about to sing
the national anthem, they threw themselves on us like beasts, like animals.

They knocked me down with a kick to the leg, and injured me. They
immobilized me for 21 days, but I had no way to heal. The one who kicked
me is Captain Arsenio, the chief of the sector Police. One of my
companions was badly hurt, they got him in the ribs and he is still in a
very bad way. On many occasions they come dressed as special troops in
order to impress us. I was in my last year of studies for a Bachelor's
in History, but as I began to demonstrate and to tell about the thefts
that were happening, then I "fell ill" and could not finish. My son has
graduated and has not been able to get a job," she said.

Translated by mlk.

21 October 2013

Source: "Three Cuban Women Under the Boots of Crime / Luis Felipe Rojas
| Translating Cuba" -
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