Press Release
Cuban independent journalist Yeris Curbelo will be prosecuted after his trial was suspended.
Link to video statement from Cuba included.
https://palenquevision.com/2024/09/23/periodista-independiente-sera-enjuiciado-por-supuesto-delito-este-martes/
Independent journalist Yeris Curbelo.
Contacts: John Suarez (612) 367-6845 and Janisset Rivero (786) 208-6056
Center for a Free Cuba, September 23, 2024, Washington, DC. On September 24, 2024, at 10:00 a.m., independent journalist Yeris Curbelo Aguilera of the Palenque Visión agency will be tried in Guantánamo, Niceto Pérez Municipality, for the alleged crime of “minor injuries” after he and his eldest son were physically attacked by State Security agents. The trial was first suspended on September 11th because the court lacked a public defender.
According to an independent journalist’s summary of the events, his 16-year-old son Jessy James Curbelo Garrido was attacked in the early hours of April 14 this year by 21-year-olds Miguel Mosqueda, Douglas Ismark Mazar Gongora, and Mariano Reyes, who beat him with kicks, causing a sprain in his right arm, facial injuries, and multiple convulsions as a result of the blows to the head. The young man was sent to the Pedro Agustín Pérez Pediatric Hospital in Guantánamo. The attackers escaped unharmed from the incident, and officials said they had been fined, despite there being proof of this..
Following these occurrences, on June 16 of this year, Yeris Curbelo Aguilera was attacked in the same location where his son had been attacked months before, by the same individuals, including Adrián Fuentes Lafita alias Toto, 41.
“They all attacked me without even saying a word, hitting me all over my body. They punched me, threw stones at me, and the individual Adrián Fuentes Lafita alias Toto attacked me with a machete that he always carries in his yellow Moskovish car and caused two wounds that had to be stitched up on my right hand. It doesn’t end there, it turns out that State Security gave orders to the patrolmen to take me alone to the police station in Guantánamo, better known as Parque 24, and they released me on bail on June 18, 2024, with me accused of minor injuries […] it’s crazy and further proof that behind all these attacks is State Security, in order to fabricate a common crime against me and imprison me due to my political activism in the ranks of the resistance and independent journalism. How is it possible that these individuals brutally attack one of my children and me, causing us injuries, and it turns out that I am arrested and charged with minor injuries! The actions of State Security against me for simply fighting and wanting a free and democratic Cuba are extremely unfair, cruel and vandalistic,” said Yeris Curbelo Aguilera.
“Let us recall that Yeris Curbelo is the journalist who condemned the case of the young Cubans who demonstrated in Caimanera and were jailed in July; he is also known in his neighborhood for helping individuals and denouncing the everyday abuses perpetrated against the Cuban people”, said John Suarez, executive director Center for a Free Cuba.
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