Police presence in Havana before the 15N march

Havana is experiencing a climate of tension this Monday with a strong police presence in some streets awaiting the outlawed march called for this November 15 to demand political change.

EFE He verified this on a tour of streets near the National Capitol, El Prado, the Vedado neighborhood and others further away from the city center, such as La Lisa, where patrols and agents guard the streets.

In some homes you could see white sheets spread out in response to the initiative of the archipelago opposition platform, which asked to hang them in support of the march to demand the release of political prisoners and a solution to the problems through democratic and peaceful means.

In contrast, official buildings and institutions have filled their facades with Cuban flags. In front of some ministries, public officials have held acts of reaffirmation.

The most visible face of the Archipelago, Yunior García Aguilera, remained incommunicado this Monday at his home, still watched by agents, and “unwell with a migraine”, as assured by a relative who lives at his home at EFE.

The environment of the young playwright’s neighborhood was very different this Monday from that of the day before, when agents and people related to the Government were stacked at his door to prevent him from marching, just as he had announced he would do as a prelude to the protest on Monday .

The 39-year-old playwright and activist has made the government uncomfortable by putting a face on the march, whose objective “is to shake a country, make people aware, generate a debate that causes change,” as he himself indicated last week in an interview with EFE.

Other activists and independent journalists have not been able to leave their homes either, because they are prevented by State security agents or groups of people related to the Government. Some have even been detained, such as Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, and her husband, Ángel Moya, according to opposition groups.

Several dozen people gathered at a “repudiation rally” in front of the home in Santa Clara of an archipelago activist, Saily González, as she herself denounced in networks.

The independent journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa affirmed in networks that he was being held in his house and could not go out to cover the protests. His colleague Yoani Sánchez reported that his internet access had been cut off.

The opposition NGO Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos, based in Spain, has registered more than 200 “repressive acts” in the last three days, among them, at least 49 detainees at homes and 25 cases of threats.

In the previous days, the security forces have summoned dozens of activists in police stations and other state departments. Several of them indicated that they received threats if they participated in the 15N march.

Protests are scheduled to take place in about a hundred cities around the world in support of this march.

The Cuban government considered the protest “illegal” and has not authorized it, considering that behind it lies the “imperial strategy” of the United States, as President Miguel Díaz-Canel said last week.

The Cuban Government withdrew this Saturday, hours before the start of the protests, the accreditations to all the journalists and graphics of the agency EFE on the island without explaining reasons or clarifying whether it was a temporary or permanent measure.

Hours later, the authorities returned them to two of the six journalists on the team, something that the president of the agency EFE, Gabriela Cañas, has considered “insufficient” and demanded that all be returned. (I)