Cuban political prisoners thank the US diplomat support Mike Hammer

Two political prisoners admitted to Las Mangas prison, in the Granma province, thanked the United States business manager in Cuba, Mike Hammer, the support demonstrated to the victims of repression on the island, and the people in general, who suffers constant economic restrictions and vicissitudes.

In a telephone call to Martí News from the Penitentiary Establishment, Fernando Barzaga Mompié and Yoandri Gutiérrez Vargas, both fulfilling seven -year sanctions of deprivation of liberty for participating in the protests on July 11, 2021, praised the unpublished gesture of the United States representative when meeting, throughout the national territory, with the most vulnerable of Cuban society.

«The thanks to the United States representative for the visit to my family and international support there in the place. I am very grateful for that support for the family and that moral and spiritual support that has given us all of us, who hopes that I also continue doing that for other political prisoners who also wait for their visit to their home. The thanks for this initiative,» said Gutiérrez Vargas, a member of the Republican Party of Cuba.

Hammer visited, on May 18, to Yoandri Gutiérrez Vargas’s family in his home in Bayamo, and there he talked with the wife, Annia Peralta, and other relatives of the political prisoner.

On May 30, Hammer received a verbal protest note from the United States General Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex), in which he is accused of interference in internal affairs and violating the Vienna Convention.

Last Friday, the United States Department of State summoned Havana’s ambassador to Washington, Lianys Torres Rivera, to express his rejection of the harassment of the Cuban regime against the head of his diplomatic mission on the island.

Known sources of the meeting with the Cuban diplomat said that the State Department indicated that Mike Hammer’s activities in Cuba – such as gathering with opponents – are similar to the work of the Cuba Embassy in the United States.

Hammer has held meetings with opponents, activists, relatives of political prisoners, religious representatives and Cuban civil society, as well as people of the population who treat it with respect and affection.

He has also visited symbolic places such as the hermitage of charity of copper and the tomb of José Martí, in Santiago de Cuba, and the Chapel of Santa Barbara in Güines. These actions have been qualified by the regime as provocations.