10 questions to youtubeuse Dina Stars after her release



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It is nine at night in Cuba and Dina Fernandez (25) she is overcome by the lack of sleep. His face reflects the more than 35 notes he gave to the international press in 15 days. She is tired, overwhelmed and exhausted. These are all the words you use to express how you are feeling right now.

On July 11, thousands of Cubans marched through the streets of the small town of San Antonio de los Baños, southwest of Havana, in an unprecedented protest against their government, demanding food and medicine. This demand quickly turned into a call for freedom across the country.

The demand spread across the island and government supporters came to defend the regime. There were bullfights and violent clashes which have been documented in several videos that have gone viral on social media. In the midst of the crash, hundreds of young people were arrested and many went missing.

José Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch, posted on his Twitter account a list of, in principle, 400 arrested and missing after the demonstrations, which were then extended to 729 people, including seven journalists from the international press.

Since July 13, the life of Dina Stars has changed completely. During an interview she was giving live for Spanish television, she was arrested. Four men – two in uniform and two in civilian clothes, he explains – broke into his house during the live broadcast to stop it.

This scandal outraged viewers and worried the whole world. “Security is outside. I have to get out … I hold the government accountable for everything that happens to me. They make me go with them, ”Dina said, as best she could, at the time. His nerves pierced the screen.

Dina was transferred to a patrol car with officers, without her cell phone and without contact with her family. Only the friends who accompanied him at the time of his arrest witnessed the event. Her mother spent hours looking for her in various police stations until local authorities granted her the right to a phone call while in prison and only then could she tell her mother that she was fine.

After this episode, Dina spoke with Clarin and answered ten key questions on the current situation in Cuba.

1. What is happening in Cuba?

– Definitely, everything is a little quieter. Cuba is more tired, overwhelmed too. I don’t know if they are scared because of the way they reacted to the protests, but the silence overwhelms you.

2. Do you think there is freedom?

-I do not know. I think I never got to experience what freedom is in general, and what it shows me that I’m not free, it’s to have to analyze and re-analyze everything I say, It won’t be something that says something that could endanger me or that could be a crime.

Yes when you don’t even have the freedom to think then you realize that you are not free. The only fear I have is my mother, who tells me every day to stay away from politics because she is afraid and doesn’t want her daughter to go to jail, and yet I still stand up for this. that I want.

3. How did the protests start?

-I saw how they started to demonstrate in San Antonio de los Baños and they were demonstrating from different provinces and I said ‘if they come out here in Havana then I will go’. We started to find out via social networks that in Havana there were people in the streets and we went there.

4. Who arrested you?

-Four policemen arrived and told me to accompany them, I was arrested for “incitement to commit a crime”In other words, to promote the demonstrations, even if they were peaceful. They took me on patrol to a police station and there they explained everything to me, they let me wait there then took me to San Antonio de los Baños and there I went where I have slept in the cell.

5. What happened in prison?

-I was not inside a dungeon because there was no prisoner and there could not be a single person inside. He was at the reception of the cell with the three policemen. There I was sitting on a marble bench where I lay down. I left my house without my cell phone for fear they would be confiscated. At the time of my arrest, I was with my friends and asked them to tell my mother about it. Then she was looking for me in a police station, then she went to another and another, they had rallied her a bit. There I said if I was going to sleep there I was entitled to a call and I called my mom and told her I was fine.

6. What do we know about inmates?

-They send me pictures of missing or detained people daily for me to publish. I’m not sure what the future holds for these guys. I don’t know if they will arrest them, some are already on trial and sentenced to one year. Personally, I have a detained friend who is a singer, who is my age (25) and who has been detained for nine days and they do not tell him what will happen to him.

7. Can anyone access the Internet?

-It’s very, very expensive. A gigabyte of internet costs 100 Cuban pesos, and now that we have to use it with KWPN, it’s like triple, it lasts a lot less. For me, for example, a 2.5 gigs package that costs 200 Cuban pesos lasts me a day and calculating that the the minimum wage is 2,500 Cuban pesos per month, that’s really a lot. Internet is a privilege unless you have family abroad and they can top up money on your cell phone.

8. What are the national media saying about the protests?

-Everything they publish is false. The national media do not say anything about what is really going on. They say there are people in the street, but they distort it. It is said that there are four people who were paid by the United States, but in reality this is not the case. There were a lot of people, it was the people of Cuba who took to the streets.

9. How has the pandemic affected you?

-The economy has been on the ground due to the lack of tourism and the reality is that with the pandemic hospitals are overcrowded, there are no drugs or medical resources and that is why people are already desperate. At first they asked for food and medicine, but then everyone screamed and asked for freedom.

10. Have you received hatred on the networks?

-I’m risking my freedom, my sanity, that of my mother, for something that in the end you say “Well, what else can I do”. There is nothing more I can do and people are demanding and demanding of you. It cannot be so. When I said I wasn’t going to do more interviews because it hurt me, people took it as an act of ingratitude. Friday I will start with a psychologist to help me, I’ll at least try a first session. I feel emotionally devastated.

During the interview, Dina explained that upon her release, they asked her to wait for a call from the authorities to understand her current legal situation. As this has not happened until then, Dina must stay home. You can only go out for work, shopping, or if you need to go to the hospital for a medical emergency. No authority has yet approached her to clarify the episode.

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