Diosvany Salazar Rodríguez

* 1976

  • “The discontent that we are experiencing, well, still exists. The State Security asked me why I was doing these activities against the Government. I gave them to read an article about Daniel Ferrer, saying, that Daniel was a murderer. I asked them: ‘Why a murderer?’ And I started to explain them why I am fighting against these lies, and they started to invent more lies. I asked them: ‘What means a counterrevolutionary for you? For me a counterrevolutionary is someone, who is putting bombs on a public places, but I am only claiming my right and rights of the people, we want to be free and to be able to express what we feel, which cannot be done, because if we do it, you will make us disappeared.’ But I am not going to get tired of continuing. Someone has to stop the Castro brothers.”

  • “No, I couldn’t reach the net. ‘Your internet service was cut off?’ Indeed. And that was the consequence of my first post I made. Also, some of my archived files were stolen from my house, some robber boys took it. It happened on the 13, no, on December 3, 2019. I have a photo of the robbers on my phone, police came to my house, they did what they had to do, they took the thief, but the next day they released them, because one of them was a relative of a policeman. I decided to protest and published some slogans like ‘Away with the Guantanamo Prosecutor’s Office’, ‘Away with the Communist Party’, ‘Away with the State Security, they are all corrupt, totally in agreement with the thieves’, and that is how I started to publish on internet. Then they summoned me for Operations, pretending like they were going to solve the problem of my stolen files, instead of that there were two officers from the State Security waiting for me.”

  • “Buddy, making a charcoal is not easy, it is crazy. You wake up when it is still dark outside, when you get there to the mountain, all those bushes are full of thorns and you have to clean them one by one. Then chop that bush, pull and chop. Then you must be careful with the access of the air, to cover the fire with the grass, but it is difficult to find some. Ignite the candle, observe the fire all the time, but sometimes you find a hole and all the coal burns, and you have nothing. There you have to be constantly watching, during the day and night. Don’t let it burn. ‘In how many days is it done?’ Since you start, ten or fifteen days. Making a charcoal is a huge risk, this money is not sure. ‘You have to be constantly in the mountains watching it, 24 hours a day.’ Yes, and when you are ready, you have to remove the coal, transport it to your village where they pay you ridiculously low amount for it. This sacrifice is tough.”

  • “Well, the water is already critical question here, the water is brought by the aqueduct, it is eight kilometers long pipeline, however the people puncture it, so that the cows could drink water and only little water reaches our community Maquicito. I decided to ubicate several posters with slogans ‘Away Fidel’, because we didn’t have any water, the water is still critical topic. And that was the moment, when the Government started to construct new water supply, nevertheless, there is still a problem with the water. For example, yesterday, we were the whole day without water and at the evening we could filled only one bottle of water. The water conduit has no pressure, they don't refill it, they don’t fill the tank well in the city La Herradura. The water represents really critical topic.”

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    Cuba, 29.06.2020

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„Here in Cuba, you cannot say what you think.“

Diosvany Salazar Rodríguez, an opponent of the communist regime in Cuba, was born in 1976 in Paraguay‘s poor village in the Guantanamo province. This region is a strongly militarized area due to its proximity to the US naval base. Life conditions of the common population are affected by the insufficient infrastructure of public services and the lack of employment opportunities. But above all, by the presence of the military which constantly controls the movement of all inhabitants. Diosvany, tired of the delegates’ promises regarding improving life in this region, began to express his discontent with the communist Government by posting anti-regime slogans and his requests in public places. As a result, he was arrested by the police and became a target of State Security surveillance. However, in the end, he managed to convince the authorities to install a water supply in his community. As a result of this achievement, he persists in his activities of claiming each person‘s basic rights and entering the “Patriotic Union of Cuba” [Unión Patriótica de Cuba], an organization opposed to the Cuban regime. He has been arrested and fined several times for posting his opinions on social media. Together with his family, he resides in the Maquicito community in the province of Guantanamo.