00:00Hello, I am Angélica Garrido, political expression and conscience of the Cuban dictatorship.
00:08I want to send a greeting to the free world and to all Cubans who fight for a dignified life in freedom.
00:16I want to update you now on the situation of my sister Mare Cristina Garrido.
00:23Last October 3rd, I had the saddest visit of all.
00:30I tell you this because my sister has been tortured psychologically,
00:34just like her children, just like all her family,
00:37holding a hope that in October, for the 15 of the Gimauas,
00:42which will be the next October 10th, she will be at home.
00:48I don't ask for crumbs. No.
00:52This is not to ask for crumbs.
00:55Because what I demand is immediate freedom for my sister Mare Cristina.
01:01But the dictatorship, the penitentiary police, does not comply with the established regulations.
01:09They don't.
01:11Because my sister is the only prisoner who remains in prison,
01:15after the time of her sentence, that she should already be in another regime.
01:22And it is not like that.
01:25They told us that in August she was going to be in camp,
01:30and after the 60 days established, she would be at home with her children.
01:35This did not happen.
01:37And she lost that hope, and her children also lost it, who are minors.
01:44They are being emotionally destabilized because of the dictatorship,
01:52because of the security of the state.
01:56My brothers,
01:59the sanction of my sister Mare Cristina is of seven years,
02:02for crimes that have been denounced from the beginning,
02:06that have been fabricated by the security of the state,
02:08that we are innocent women.
02:13And with these denunciations and these accusations, it has been of no use.
02:18I turned three years old,
02:21and she would have already been three years old with me,
02:25of unfair imprisonment.
02:27However, the officer, Gervasio Escalona Escalona,
02:33shamelessly lied,
02:36giving a false testimony on the day of the trial,
02:39linking my sister Mare Cristina Garrido,
02:42in a tumultuous rite,
02:44which took place that night,
02:46which has nothing to do with the peaceful demonstration
02:50that took place in my town.
02:53A dignified and honorable demonstration.
02:57How we left leading that march in a dignified way,
03:01without a single man
03:03being able to criticize us.
03:07We did not violate any regulations.
03:10However, he shamelessly gave that false testimony,
03:15for which he was sentenced to four more years,
03:21with a demerit crime and an attack crime.
03:27After a while,
03:30the officer of the State Security, Frisha Castillo,
03:34declared in front of his superiors and in my presence,
03:38that this case had been dismissed
03:40because Mare Cristina Garrido
03:42had not left her house on July 11 at night
03:45and had participated in that tumultuous rite,
03:51because he was personally watching the house,
03:54that she did not leave.
03:56And because of that other lie,
03:59my sister is still unjustly imprisoned
04:02in the Western Women's Prison.
04:04Because of that other lie, and nothing happens.
04:08I do not ask for crumbs.
04:10I demand immediate freedom for Mare Cristina Garrido.
04:14A brave woman, a dignified woman,
04:17full of principles.
04:20A woman who has been subjected to physical torture,
04:23and you know it,
04:25in her arrest, so that she would shout,
04:27Long live Fidel!
04:29Who is still subjected to psychological torture,
04:32in which her children also suffer.
04:36I demand immediate freedom for Mare Cristina Garrido.
04:40Recently she also received,
04:43thanks to our Lord,
04:46a scholarship granted by the International Pen of Writers in Germany,
04:50where she and her younger children are given asylum.
04:54We have not yet received, my brothers,
04:57we have not yet received an answer
05:00from the German embassy in Havana,
05:02nor have we received any answer from the State Security.
05:08I ask you not to be discouraged.
05:11I ask you to continue to help us in the face of this injustice
05:15that has led my sister to spend four more years
05:18of unjust imprisonment.
05:21Four more years without rights
05:24in the dungeons of Cuban prisons.
05:29I repeat that I demand
05:32immediate freedom for Mare Cristina Garrido,
05:35political prisoner of conscience.
Comments