The government makes a fair and gives its version of what happened

After the massive demonstration of Friday in the Río Cauto municipality of the Province Granma, Mayelín Carrasco Alvarez, the woman who protested in the Angel Frías square of that town for scarcity and hunger was released on Saturday night.

«Mayelín released her last night,» a resident of Guamo Viejo confirmed to Martí News, where the protester resides. The woman, who preferred not to be identified, said not to know if they had imposed charges.

Another neighbor of Guamo Viejo, Ricardo Valcárcel, confirmed that Carrasco had already been released: “If they released her. They did not ‘occupy’ charges. I saw her this morning that she walks very smiling on the street, as if nothing had happened. There is no longer any kind of problem, ”he explained.

“She has no phone. She is a very humble little girl who has no chance or phone, ”he lamented.

Carrasco Álvarez had been apprehended and transferred to the State Security Operations Barracks in the city of Bayamo, the provincial capital, after, perched on a platform in the town of Río Cauto, he demonstrated before a group of countrymen for the frightening misery that all face.

The video of his protest and subsequent arrest went viral on social networks. Dozens of people demanded their release.

On Saturday, after the demonstrations of the Riocautense people, the municipal government published in its official Facebook account a photo of Yudelkis Ortiz Barceló, first secretary of the party in Granma, and Governor Yanetsy Terry Gutiérrez, with Carrasco Álvarez.

The image is accompanied by a post with a rhetorical question: “Is there any precedent in another country where the highest authorities of a province visit a citizen for an alleged crime? NO! Only in Cuba, thanks to the humanistic character of the socialist revolution! «

The comments were swift: Internet users showed their disbelief about the alleged change of the protester’s mentality.

This was written by a user who identified as PERICO PÉREZ: “I have a great curiosity to know how they made the lady change his mind as soon … I entered reasons …. saw the light! Look at her. It is the living stamp of ‘joy’. «

In the photo released in networks by the Granmenses authorities, Carrasco Álvarez appears sitting in a huge armchair, smiling and flanked by the two officials. The source consulted by Martí News said it was taken in a place in the city of Bayamo, where the woman was transferred after her protest.

«No. That is not your home. That was in the government, there in Bayamo, where they had it detained, because it seems that they were giving her some ‘therapy’ first there and then took her for the arrest, that’s why that beautiful house comes out, ”he said.

Mayelín’s house «is in bad conditions,» the interviewee witnessed.

The same photo was placed in her Facebook profile by the first secretary of the party in Granma: «She is Mayelin Carrasco, the Riocautense mother who has been the meat of the odor, is very healthy and very regretful for her way of acting,» he said.

«He knows that the consequences of his acts whom he affects is his loved ones and especially his children, because those who are inciting have not seen him anywhere worried or occupied with his situation,» said the partisan leader.

The leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, José Daniel Ferrer, who has remained informing about the events in the Granmense town, he considered, in conversation with our writing, that “the truly striking has been the reaction of hundreds of citizens of Guamo Viejo, Río Cauto and other localities, solidarity with the mother who raised his voice”.

«The people are becoming aware that you cannot leave alone those who protest against the generalized misery that affects the majority, who publicly say what the majority wishes to say.»

According to Ferrer, Friday’s protest began in Guamo Viejo, where several dozen people took to the streets to demand that Carrasco Álvarez released. Later, a group of protesters went to the municipal seat and residents of other neighborhoods in the area, as well as the same Cauto River.

“It represents the feeling of millions of Cubans, of mothers who do not support the misery and hunger suffered by their children. That day was Mayelín, but that kind of protests has been happening some time ago in many parts of the country, ”said the opposition leader.

Apparently, as a strategy to placate the spirits of citizens, the Provincial Government of Granma organized an agricultural fair in the town of Río Cauto in which they sold bananas, rice, peas, cornmeal and some more products, as observed in a post of the Municipal Government of Granma.

Also, the authorities announced to have received “rice sending for the regulated family basket. The one that will be distributed in the wineries of Cauto Embarcadero, Guamo Viejo, El Mango, Salao, Los Guayitos and other neighborhoods. «

The night of the demonstration, the municipal government showed in its Facebook account images of empty streets and assured that there had been no repression in Río Cauto and yes «freedom of expression.»

In this regard, Ferrer stressed that Cuba «is the country where less freedom of expression and manifestation exists throughout the continent», and that it is «one of the countries where human rights are most violated in the world.»

He added that its sources have expressed that «many residents of the Río Cauto municipality continue to be ready to defend this mother, and any of theirs who protest in favor of all.»

The Riocautenses call «the bristles» to those who claim to commune with the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel, in reference to the devotion that an old woman showed him, who compared him to the late dictator Fidel Castro, during his tour of the municipality in February 2024: «Look if I boil, because both I wanted them, with the soul, with life,» said the woman.

Ferrer warned that «the regime increasingly scared with the reactions of a people tired of oppression and misery, use all kinds of ridiculous interpretations of the facts and have tried to present Mayelín Carrasco as a regretful person of what he did.»

«But, given the serious crisis that the nation lives and the irrational position of the regime that, given the demands of the people, only knows how to increase repression, these protests will continue to occur more and more frequently, each time they will be more numerous,» said the opposition leader and Cuban political prisoner, recently released.