“For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” - Elie Wiesel, Night
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| Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia murdered by police in Cuba, and children he left behind |
Ten years ago today Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia (age 46) who had been arrested and beaten by Castro's revolutionary police on May 5, 2011 while protesting the dictatorship died three days later on May 8th from injuries sustained. Reuters, the BBC, CNN, AP, EFE and others reported the death of this Cuban dissident and former political prisoner. He was so badly beaten that he required hospitalization.
Juan Wilfredo Soto left behind two children and their mom. He was a member of the Opposition Central Coalition and was known as "The Student." He was a former political prisoner who had served 12 years in prison. His mother, who suffers from a bad hip, buried her son on Mother's Day. Pictures of Juan Wilfredo Soto's family members were provided by Yoani Sanchez through twitter in 2011.
Ten years have passed and justice has not been done for Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia and his family. There have been new victims of police violence in Cuba since then, and impunity has only encouraged more abuse.
Protesters picket the Embassy of Cuba in Washington DC on May 6, 2021
This was one of the reasons why on May 6th between 4pm and 6pm we held a protest outside of the Embassy of Cuba in Washington DC.
We observed the tenth anniversary of the beating death of Juan Wilfredo
Soto Garcia, and demanded justice for him, and others like him,
while calling on Havana to free Luis Manuel Otero
Alcántara, meet his three demands, and free all of Cuba's political prisoners.
Protest at the Cuban Embassy on May 6, 2021
We continue to remember and bear witness for the victims of Castroism, demand justice, and freedom.
Indeed: to forget the dead is to kill them a second time... Boitel, Zapata Tamayo, Soto García... the three young men executed for attempting to hijack the Regla ferry boat, the 6,000+ men murdered by shooting squad - en el Paredón-, the 50+ victims of the Canímar River massacre (1980) and the one of the "13 de marzo" tugboat where 37 people, including children, were intentionally drowned (1994)... the 70,000+ rafters who have drowned in the Florida Straits, fleeing Hell... No, we must never never forget! Ileana Fuentes
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