Luis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G.
Recently, I published a post in which Jacquelin details the physical
blows she received at the hands of combined forces from the political
police and the trained mobs who broke into her house to take Ariel
Arzuaga, her husband, to prison and leave her full of bruises and with a
fractured arm.
During the time I completed that post Ariel was imprisoned and was being
accused of unimaginable charges. After beating all those present in that
humble home, the police cynically accused the man of attempting to hurt
the soldiers. In addition, they accused him of a list of other absurd
things which, out of respect for the family, I will not even mention
because I don't think that repeating them will help in any way to remove
the 8 years of prison they are supposed to sentence him on this June 24
in Bayamo during what, in Cuba, they call "municipal tribunals".
At four in the afternoon I tried to reach them via telephone to find out
how the false "trial" went but I could not get in touch with anyone in
the family. After countless attempts I was finally able to get in touch
with Yoandri Montoya who told me, "Yes, today was the trial but we were
not able to get to the tribunal because the police surrounded the place
and anyone who tried to get through was detained. The trial is over and
we still do not know how much time Ariel was sentenced to because the
entire family was arrested. So you can imagine how far the injustice
went that the entire family carried out a protest and the repressive
forces were used on them as well".
Everyone in the family has been arrested.
"Well, at least his wife…," I told him.
"No, the wife has been detained since Monday in Santiago de Cuba. It
happened while she was on her way to show support and solidarity with
the family of Jorge Cervantes. She was captured together with other
women and up to now she has not yet been freed. They told me that it
seems that she was beaten so bad that they still have not released her
because they are waiting for the bruises and scars to go away".
When I am finally able to talk to Jacquelin I will let you all know
more, but I could not let another day pass without reporting that this
week the injustice and cowardliness of the dictatorship's soldiers has
been once again practiced in this region.
Translated by Raul G.
25 June 2011
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