Roberto Perdomo Fuente

“There are a lot of people who are quite demonstrating in favor of us the opponents. They also suffer beatings, too. Because there have been cases when they demonstrate, they are called abusers, the State Security officials come and beat them, beat them with their batons, push them, threatening to expel them from their work. They seek all kinds of threats to have the people silent and threatened, covered in fear.”

“The economic situation in Cuba is terrible. And people have no other choice but to drop out of school, because they cannot afford to buy a pair of shoes at a regular store, like the ones we have now opened. For that reason, they have once again set up shop where you can pay only with an American dollar. When here in Cuba there exist thousands and thousands of citizens who went to the prison for possession of that currency. And now these stores that exclusively accept American dollars are authorized in Cuba and have privilege over all other stores.”

“The national police officers gave me those fines for my activism that I carry out daily in the province of Santiago de Cuba, and every time there is some demonstration, such as during the campaign ‘We All March’ [Todos Marchamos] of ‘Ladies in White’ [Damas de Blanco], when we go out to the streets, when we provide interviews, and when we challenge delegates of the municipality. They summon us, beat us, beat us up and then the police just give us a fine. The general comprehensive inspectors give you a fine, a fine that seems to be some fine for a violation of the rules or normative, a license of sale violation, a violation of some rules, but in the reality, you are not violating anything. Those are fines for being a human rights defender. That is how I got already six fines.”