They arrested in Cuba a journalist opposed to the Castro regime who demanded amnesty from the prisoners of the 11J protests

In Havana, Cuba, taxis are showy from afar because of their status as vintage cars, as if they were taken from a Hollywood movie from the fifties with those powerful metal chassis. On Wednesday, April 19, journalist Lisbeth Moya González was leaving the family home to meet her friends and colleagues and was going to take a taxi, although they had already warned her mother that “they” were going to try to keep her inside her house so she wouldn't go 'to the US embassy'. “They” were the members of State Security, the political police of the one-party government, the Cuban Communist Party.

Lisbeth went out to meet her friends and soon had several agents around. She saw a taxi, raised her hand, but before she could get in, an agent threatened the driver, telling him that the young woman was a counterrevolutionary and that if she climbed her, she could even lose her car. The taxi left. Lisbeth continued with the group of agents walking around her and when she could she entered another taxi, also colorful but which had not been noticed by the agents, and pointed her out where to go. The same agent got into the cab. Again he asked the taxi driver to stop the march and not take the girl because she was a counterrevolutionary. The taxi followed its route. However, a few blocks later a police patrol got in front of him and forced him to stop. Then Lisbeth Moya Gonzalez was taken by the taxi agent to the patrol car. She was told that she was in detention and was taken to a police station. His crime? He had demanded that political prisoners be released from the 11J mobilizations.

With this acronym, the mobilizations of July 11, 2021 are known, the largest social protests held in Cuba since the Revolution gave power to Fidel Castro and his July 26 Movement in January 1959. The revolt began in San Antonio de los Baños and spread like wildfire throughout Cuba, including Havana. Its most symbolic feature was the attack on stores with products that can only be purchased in dollars. Police patrolmen were also attacked in different parts of the country. The slogan most chanted by the masses was “Patria y Vida”, a song by the duo Gente de zona, which since its release in February 2021 had become an anthem of opposition to the Castro regime.

The 11J protests came amid structural economic reforms that worsened the living conditions of the popular majorities who do not have access to foreign currency and, therefore, aggravated social discontent, already cracked by years of US trade embargo. The economic adjustment of the government of Díaz Canel in the context of the pandemic deepened the consolidation of a privileged caste of government and military officials who enjoy the privilege of accumulating in dollars or participating in the businesses and companies that were laundered during the time of the current reform, which followed the constitutional reform that opened the door to an economy of a capitalist character (according to the Vietnamese model) or mixed (with private and state participation). The 11J revolts resulted in hundreds of detainees throughout Cuba. In March of this year, trials were held for the incidents in Havana, where 127 protesters were sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, and for the incidents in San Antonio de los Baños, where 17 protesters were sentenced to up to 17 years in prison.

The penalties provoked complaints to the government of Díaz Canel in different parts of the world. Even Pablo Milanés, the leading singer-songwriter of the Cuban Nueva Trova and perhaps one of the living symbols of the Cuban revolution, publicly denounced the repressive violence of the government. There were condemnations of Cuban justice by the European Union and accessions to the government of Díaz Canel in the face of an alleged attack by imperialism that spread among communist parties from different latitudes, the Sao Paulo Forum or the Brazilian PT, among others.

Cuban leftist activists (who defend the gains of the revolution, condemn the official economic adjustment and the US embargo) organized to launch an appeal for amnesty to the political prisoners of the 11J and circulated it carefully to to be able to obtain pronouncements in favor among members of the Cuban cultural, academic and laborious fields. They also reached out to different personalities in the political and cultural fields of the world. The organizers decided that the appeal should not have official spokespersons to prevent repressive actions by the State. However, Lisbeth Moya González is a recognized activist and it was known that she was one of the organizers of the call. That's why his arrest.

Cuban signatories include artist Tania Bruguera, journalist and writer Jorge Fernández Era, filmmaker Carla Valdés León, visual artist and performer Cirenaica Moreira Díaz and a wide range of academic personalities, in different disciplines. At the international level, the French philosopher Etienne Balibar, the English historian Alex Callinicos, the French thinker Michael Lowy, the Spanish writer and essayist Santiago Alba Rico are part of a long list that includes, in the Argentine chapter, the lawyer Roberto Gargarella, the writer Marcelo Birmajer and Workers' Policy leaders Jorge Altamira and Marcelo Ramal, and trade unionist Pollo Sobrero, among others. Política Obrera had held a demonstration at the Cuban embassy in January demanding the release of the 11J prisoners, while members of the Argentine Communist Party controlled the security of the diplomatic headquarters. The Cuban ambassador did not receive the representatives of that party.

Within the ruling Cuban party, former Minister of Culture Abel Prieto (current director of Casa de las Américas, the island's largest cultural institution) said on his personal social networks: “In recent days, an 'open letter', supposedly drawn from the left, has been moving, repeating all the topics of the the U.S. version of the events of 11 and 12 July and the process where Cuban courts have been trying those directly responsible for the violence. The only “leftist” brushstroke of the text has to do with a quick mention of the US blockade against our country. Everything else is a shameful contribution to the image of Cuba that is being imposed by hegemonic media and social networks. Along with names that mean nothing, they have gathered some signatures of valuable figures of the thought of emancipation. We know how these statements are worked on and how lightly some signatures are obtained. But standing on the side of the Empire today to attack Cuba is an act against nature for every worthy person, especially if he believes in the possibility of building an alternative world to the kingdom of money and barbarism.” In a more brutal way, the Cuban Ambassador to Costa Rica Jorge Rodríguez referred to the appeal: “The document is an infamy, the CIA could not have written it better, if it was not she who drafted it. The signatories of Costa Rica are the functional Trotskyists on the right and imperialism, spawns of the CIA everywhere.” Then came the arrest of activist Lisbeth Moya González.

She was officially summoned at the police station for a hearing on Wednesday the 20th at 9pm. While Infobae was communicating with organizers of the call for the release of the political prisoners of the 11J, they moved the Lisbeth hearing forward to 6 p.m. After a slow wait, the hearing took place. Lisbeth Moya recounted on her social media: “Today I had an official summons to warn me that I should have good social behavior and not go out on May 1. You can rest assured that I hate tumult and shouting and May 1 in Cuba does not have the meaning that I defend: to demand and demand labor rights. May 1 should be about free unions and not about state vindication. Yesterday I was kidnapped by agents Yordan and Isabel. The intention was apparently that I would not leave my house and I refused. I was persecuted and then arrested. Then interrogated as always with family allusions, sexists and attempts to violate me physically and emotionally. As always, my status as a person on the left was called into question because the left belongs to them and it is in their pocket and I was warned in a thousand ways that being an independent journalist, speaking out on networks and demanding the freedom of prisoners is to be a counterrevolutionary. The call @solidaridad11j is of great concern to them. I reaffirm my commitment to the truth and to the oppressed. My condition of subalternity, my feminism, my profession and my heart, allow me nothing else. #Solidaridad11J #AmnistíaYa #SocialismoSíRepresiónNo”.

Today, the prisoners of 11J remain free. Lisbeth regained her freedom, while she was forbidden to leave her home on May 1, International Workers' Day. The Cuban situation seems to add discontent left and right with a government solution that seems to focus on repression. The appeal continues to be signed. The question is: until when?

Keep reading: