“The ‘chemical’ is cheaper than a soft drink,” says Alberto Turis Betancourt, outraged
14ymedio, Havana, 5 September 2024 — Activist Alberto Turis Betancourt Pérez was arrested this Wednesday for taking to the streets to protest against the sale of drugs in his neighborhood, Jesús María, in Old Havana. Carrying two large handwritten signs, the man let himself be recorded while walking. He denounced that on Gloria Street, between Carmen and Rastro, narcotics are being sold – the “so-called ‘chemical’, crack and heroin” – with total impunity.
“A chemical is cheaper than a soft drink; they take drugs every day, they live for that,” Betancourt shouts in the video on his Facebook page. Meanwhile, “the police don’t act, mothers are tired of having their things stolen, the people are dying and no one is interested.” In addition, he warns: “I want you to know that my life can be in danger because I am no longer just talking about the regime, but about all criminals who sell drugs without any kind of punishment.”
Questioned by 14ymedio, Betancourt says that after his demonstration he was fined “by Section 21 for public disorder.” He posted on Facebook that “they sent a patrol car and took me to Dragones [Police Station]; they fined me and threatened me. None of this intimidated me; on the contrary, it ga
