Cuban Jailed for Blaming Diaz-Canel for Long Blackout Freed
Guzman “is out of prison, but she still faces legal proceedings for peacefully exercising her freedom of expression and voicing her dissatisfaction.”
HAVANA TIMES – Activist Lumey Guzman Fernandez, detained last month after posting a critical video on social media, has been released on bail. The organization Justicia 11J reported the news on Wednesday, citing a family source.
Guzman had been held in pretrial detention on contempt charges since her arrest on July 9. She was detained after a Facebook livestream in which she expressed her deep frustration over having endured a 90-hour blackout. A resident of Alamar, in eastern Havana, she lashed out directly at President Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife, Lis Cuesta, and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.
“This video is for the president who says Cuba resists with dignity. This video is for that son of a bitch Bruno, who says Cuba is an economy. This video is for Machi, who says Cuba is light. This video is for the people of Zone 6 in Alamar: take off your blindfolds,” she declared in the video, which ended with: “Enough of all this communism. Down with the dictatorship. Homeland and Life.”
The activist received a summons that same day to report to the Alamar police station, where she was detained. After being held at the Cojímar police station and the State Security detention center known as El Vivac in Havana, she was transferred on July 17 to the women’s prison in El Guatao. There, Justicia 11J recalls, and according to complaints from her relatives, “she had lost a great deal of weight and her mental state had deteriorated.”
For several days, according to her family in statements to Martí Noticias, Lurney was held incommunicado, denied bail, and confined under extreme conditions. “They won’t allow anyone to bring her food; they won’t allow anyone to see her,” her brother, Rodney Guzmán, who lives in Tampa, Florida, told the Cuban-American news outlet in July.
Now, Justicia 11J says in its post, Guzman “is out of prison, but she still faces legal proceedings for peacefully exercising her freedom of expression and voicing her dissatisfaction with the situation in the country.”
The NGO denounced the case, stating: “The use of the judicial system to persecute dissenting voices, intimidate those who question those in power, and instill fear among those who denounce the reality in Cuba constitutes a form of repression.”
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
As much as I agree that Trump’s politics have had a significant influence on the current situation, and that he tends to bully everyone, we also have to recognise that for decades, Cuban governments have insisted on putting the vast majority of their income in one basket: tourism. They continued building new hotels, often unnecessarily, while existing ones were poorly managed\.
It was no secret that Cuba’s power stations were ageing relics\. In a country blessed with so many sunny days, there is little excuse for not taking greater advantage of solar energy\. For decades, Cuba became dependent first on the Soviet Union and later on Venezuela\.
Mismanagement is a fact\.
Socialism is closer to my heart than capitalism, but if you genuinely care about your population, you cannot simply allow people to suffer\. The Eastern Bloc tried this system, and because it failed to evolve, it eventually collapsed.
China and Vietnam adapted and transformed their systems, and we can certainly say that they have achieved considerable economic success\.
You cannot blame the embargo or Trump for everything\.
The world is changing, and if you are wise enough, you adapt.
I have a few friends in Cuba, and I can only imagine how difficult life must be when blackouts are part of your daily misery\. I grew up in a communist country, but even then, the situation was never as bad as it is now in Cuba.
This country is very close to my heart.
If you do not recognise your mistakes, how can you ever learn from them?
This woman showed incredible courage in speaking out. She expressed herself because she cares about the future of her country, and for that, she is suffering.
I believe everyone has a breaking point, and those in power have to listen\. The current approach seems to be to suppress any criticism. But that does not hide the fact that ordinary people are suffering and losing hope – and hope, as they say, dies last.
Just blaming someone without logic is wrong. Ms. Guzman should know the situation herself unless she is away from the media herself, which doesn’t look like. It is Trump’s bullying the people of entire south America which is causing this disaster. At the same time such a difficulty has forced Cubans to think of new lines of power like solar power. I will rather appreciate the governmental efforts in this difficult time.