Another high-ranking Cuban regime soldier has died: second in a week and dictatorship did not report the cause

In the midst of the social explosion that shook the Castro regime, this Sunday the death of the general of the reserve division was reported, Rubén Martínez Puente. He is the second soldier to die last week, after the death last weekend of Major General Agustín Peña. In both cases, the dictatorship did not report the causes of death.

In the statement, the authorities indicate that, by decision of the family, the remains will be cremated. In addition, they stressed that the ashes will be protected to pay “a well-deserved tribute” at a date not yet fixed.

Martínez Puente, 79, began his military career in the Sierra Maestra, under the command of the column led by Raúl Castro in the Second Eastern Front Frank País.

He became the supreme head of anti-aircraft defense and the revolutionary air force, after having specialized as a combat aviation pilot in the former Czechoslovakia.

As detailed in the portal cuban newspaperAfter the 1959 revolution, he was the head of the San Antonio de los Baños air brigade. He also participated in the wars that the dictator Fidel Castro developed in Africa (Angola) with the help of Soviet arms.

Towards the end of his military career, he served as director of the Agricultural Military Union.

In civilian life, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and a member of the National Assembly of People’s Power.

Last weekend, The Cuban dictatorship reported the death of General Peña Pórrez, for reasons that the regime did not want to reveal either. The soldier was the maximum leader of Cuba’s eastern army, one of the highest ranks in the regime’s military ladder.

Neither the Cuban dictator nor the official journal Granny, who also reviewed the death, explained the causes of death. The newspaper failed to ensure that his body, as in the case of Martínez Puente, was cremated and his ashes deposited in the Pantheon of the Dead for Defense in the Province of Holguín.

Peña had been promoted to the rank of Major General in 2020 and headed what Cubans call the “Lord Army,” which stretches from Camagüey province to Guantanamo, including the border with the US-controlled naval base. United.

The Army of the East was created by Raúl Castro in April 1961, a few days after the Bay of Pigs. Under his command, the units of the Land Troops, Revolutionary War Navy and Air Defense and Revolutionary Air Force of the Castro Dictatorship are subordinate.

By not revealing the causes of these deaths, Rumors have multiplied on social networks about what could have happened to them.

These events took place amid a wave of arrests and persecution by the Cuban dictatorship of civil society due to the historic and spontaneous protests that took place across the island on July 11.

The regime responded with a brutal crackdown that left people dead, injured, detained and missing.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has expressed its “concern” over what it considers to be “Serious violations” of human rights recorded in Cuba.

In a statement, the Office of the Special Rapporteur of the IACHR for Freedom of Expression reiterated its rejection of “repressive actions during demonstrations” and warned that the complaints received from civil society “are serious and deserve the attention of Cuban authorities and the international community “.

“According to the information received, the days of protest were followed by a police deployment both in the street and in private homes, which would have lasted several days”, specifies the text.

Thus, the IACHR indicated that the events denounced “They include the arrests of hundreds of demonstrators, the incommunicado detention of detainees and the uncertainty of relatives as to their fate.”

The IACHR also indicated that acts of “surveillance and control of residences” were recorded, as well as the opening of legal proceedings “without adequately guaranteeing the right of defense of persons detained by the State”, as reported by Radio Televisión Martí.

The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) demanded that the European Union (EU) apply sanctions to the Cuban regime to force a “peaceful transition” that put an end to the “violation of human rights” in the country, by denouncing more than 700 detainees and missing during the recent demonstrations on the island.

This non-governmental organization, which brings together various activists and exiles from Cuba, assured in an act in the capital of Spain that it had documented the arrest and disappearance of 601 men and 156 women, including 13 minors, since the start of the protests on July 11.

With information from the Cuban newspaper and Europa Press

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