14ymedio, Madrid, 12 December 2023 — After a couple of weeks of hesitations, the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) has taken the step expected by many of its Cuban members with the publication of a statement that “condemns political repression in Cuba” in general terms, as well as “in particular” in the case of the historian Alina Bárbara López Hernández, declared guilty of the crime of disobedience by a court in Matanzas on November 28.
“For several months, Dr. Alina López Hernández has been the subject of acts of repression and intimidation by the authorities of her country,” it states in the text, released through the website of the institution, based in the United States.
LASA specifically accuses Cuba’s Police, State Security and the Prosecutor’s Office of violating the human and citizen rights of the Matanzas intellectual, listing several instances including harassment on social networks, physical attacks, suspension of internet service, a travel ban and pressures on her immediate environment.
LASA specifically accuses the Police, State Security and the Prosecutor’s Office of violating the human and citizen rights of the Matanzas intellectual.
The association describes as “illegitimate and unconstitutional” the summons that the authorities issued to López Hernández and to which she refused to attend, a fact for which she was accused and placed under house arrest in June of this year. “The oral hearing took place in a militarized and intimidating context, with clear demonstrations of force by the authorities, arbitrariness and violations of due process rights, both on the person of Dr. López Hernández and on the citizens who paid attention to the act,” it adds.
The text is accompanied by various media reports that document the “persecution” against the intellectual, specifically pointed out by the Spanish-based NGO Prisoner Defenders, the Cuba Próxima organization and the exiled in Mexico historian Rafael Rojas, brother of Cuba’s Vice Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas. Lasa describes all of them and others who have denounced the situation as “relevant intellectuals and organizations of Cuban and internationa
