Opponents and independent journalists, with police operations and communications cut off due to Independence Day
14ymedio, Havana, 20 May 2024 — Activist Leonardo Romero Negrín was released this Monday afternoon after spending several hours under arrest at the Dragones police station, in Old Havana. A group of friends stood outside the unit demanding the release of the young man who was fined for an alleged crime of public disorder.
“Leo is not alone. In this era, no one is any longer when confronted with violence and arbitrariness. Thank you to everyone who reported, shared and was waiting in front of the police station,” academic Alina Bárbara López Hernández wrote on her Facebook account.
The arrest on Monday morning of Romero Negrín was part of the police operations that the Cuban regime deployed this May 20, as part of the repressive actions for the 122nd anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Cuba in 1902 and that also included telephone cuts and surveillance around the homes of activists and independent journalists.
Romero Negrín was a physics student at the University of Havana when he was arrested on April 30, 2021, on Obispo Street for walking with a sign that said “Socialism yes, repression no.” During the mass demonstrations of 11 July 2021, he was apprehended once more and was also beaten. Accused of “public disorder,” he was released after six days, but since then he has never ceased to be harassed by the political police. Carolina Barrero, also an activist, who denounced the arbitrary detention on Monday recalls from Spain, “Leo is one of those young people who, against all odds, stayed in Cuba and tries to make his little piece of land a better country.”
“Family and friends have little news of him but we know that his detention is political”
He is not, however, the only one who suffers harassment nowadays. 14ymedio’s editorial staff in Havana remains, since this Sunday, with connection problems, and early this Monday a police operation was underway on the ground floor of the building where