Cuban government and march organizers cross accusations

A Cuban opposition group that called for a march on November 15 denounced that its members have been the target of repression by the communist government, while authorities accuse their leaders of being agents of the United States.

“The various forms of repression have not stopped in Cuba” since July 11 when unprecedented demonstrations broke out in some 50 cities shouting “Freedom” and “We are hungry”, denounced the Commission for the Support and Protection of Protesters of the November 15, recently created to support the Archipelago group, which called this march.

The commission assures that the repression samples “have intensified” since the announcement of the protest for the freedom of political prisoners, which has been banned by the government. The authorities affirm that the mobilization aims to provoke a regime change with the support of the United States.

The group also reported that members and supporters of the Archipelago made 22 complaints, between October 25 and 30, for reprisals for participating in the convocation.

Among the complaints are threats of dismissal, intimidation, police surveillance, home confinement and arbitrary detentions.

For their part, the authorities accused in the state newscast the founder of Archipelago and organizer of the demonstration, Yunior García, of wanting to create a “climate of instability” and thus give “a soft coup”, after having received training in the abroad, especially from US organizations.

“In September 2019, we both participated in an event on the role of the armed forces in a transition process,” Carlos Leonardo Vázquez said in a video broadcast on the news, who revealed that he was an infiltrated state security agent.

García “is calling for a march that he says is peaceful, but he knows it is not peaceful, because there were two generals in the paramilitary workshop where we participated.”

“He is looking for the confrontation of the armed forces with the people and we will not allow that,” he added.

The government has warned organizers of criminal consequences if they persist in the call for a demonstration, which is scheduled in Havana and in six other provinces of the island.

In Cuba there are “enough revolutionaries to face any type of demonstration,” warned President Miguel Díaz-Canel a week ago, faced with the challenge of opposition groups to maintain the march.

While on social networks, photos and videos of civilians armed with sticks and even weapons were published, practicing for a possible confrontation.