Diosdel Lores Tiser

  • “The news that are shown at the Cuban television at this moment the most, is the death of an Afro American with a black skin. That his death [George Floyd died in June 2020 in Minneapolis after a policeman squeezed his neck with his knee] was caused by a white American police officer. They publish that news all the time, at the press, on a television. I ask myself, why they show this to the Cubans on television, those images of an American policeman beating an American citizen? Why don’t they also do the same here? If every day, there are many police officers in the streets beating the Cuban citizens. They show you how an American policeman beats a black man, but not the policemen here in Cuba who, every day, beat people, release the dogs on the Cuban people in the middle of the street or they brutally beat the people with their baton.”

  • “Every year, on the May 1st, they take all the prisoners to the dining room, where is the television , so that everybody watches the president’s speech [at that time in 2013 President of the Republic of Cuba was Fidel Castro]. On the first May 1st that José Manuel Rodríguez Navarro [political prisoner] and I were imprisoned, we told the Council that we were not going to see any speech, because we were not interested. It was not in our interest to see this May speech. And Coco [head of the Council of Prisoners] and the Council used that moment for a repression against José Manuel and me. Luckily, there was passing Paz, I am not sure if I can say it, who is the partner of José Manuel and belongs to the Council of Prisoners. They held us there, and the guard came up. The guard officer came up, but it was for Paz, that this day nothing happened to us, on the contrary, they took us down, they took us to the cell. The next day I demonstrated again, by hanging the white sheet, when the prisoners from the 3rd and the 4th floors came down, they came down to have a walk below the sun, I demonstrated and I hang a long white sheet over the bars saying ‘Away with the dictatorship’.”

  • “When you are defending your rights in the prison, they handcuff you and take you up to the medical post. The doctors are also in a favor of their plan, they are kind of spies, the doctors work together with the communist regime, they are under the same system. The guards tell the doctor that you are upset and other things and lies. The doctor gives you a medicine, I do not know the name, but after this medicine your mouth hearts, it makes you vomit, it makes you sick, it numbs your mouth, it gives you a very bad symptoms. Later, they move you to that room that has five beds. They tie you up by both hands and feet, in the room full of mosquitoes, the leave you there so that the mosquitoes eat you, you cannot do anything. You ask them, you beg them to please let you go, or just to untied you one hand to get rid of the mosquitoes on you. Because there is no one who could possibly support this. And they don’t help you.”

  • “Many young people were every day at different places [instead of being at school or work] here in Guantánamo. Us students, we also received strong attacks from those young people, we always received strong aggressions from them, because the same people from whom we received attacks were also robbing things that were necessary for them. Also I saw several times many teachers, teachers that I saw on the streets looking for their students, trying to take these youth back to the school, but this young people turned back and continued in what they were doing. Professors never took the control of anything they never took the control over their students. The only control that had the principal at that time, I tell the truth, was the control over the prettiest girl from the school, this was the control that he always had on one hundred percent.”

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    Cuba, 04.06.2020

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    délka: 01:27:52
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memoria de la Nación Cubana / Memory of the Cuban Nation
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Although we receive strong repression from the Cuban government, we must demand our freedom

Diosdel Lores Tissert was born in 1989 in Santiago de Cuba, however, all his life he has lived in a humble and poor area in the south of the city Guantánamo, without electricity or accessible drinking water. Since his youth he has been declaring against mistreatment and injustices caused by the Cuban authorities and his natural rebellion was the reason of his bullying during the compulsory military training. Later, he decided to abandon his veterinary studies, due to various accusations from the professors. In December 2013, the state authorities destroyed his home where he lived with his girlfriend, who was eight months pregnant, however, he decided to rebuild their house, what was the reason of his detention by the State Security and taking him to the Operations Station, where he was physically and psychologically tortured. The result of this incident was a two-year sentence in the “Combined Prison of Guantanamo” [Combinado de Guantánamo] for alleged attempt to leave the country illegally via the Naval Base of the United States in Guantanamo Bay. It was during his stay in prison when he approached the political prisoners, sharing his fight against the communist regime in Cuba. Upon leaving the prison in November 2016, he continued with his actions as an opponent by joining the “Patriotic Union of Cuba” [Unión Patriótica de Cuba]. Diosdel is a human rights activist and promotes democracy and freedom for every human being in his country. He resides in Guantánamo and has one son.