Mother of jailed minor who protested against the Cuban government goes on hunger strike

A Cuban mother has gone on a hunger strike to call for the release of her imprisoned child, as family members get increasingly desperate over the fate of minors facing harsh sentences for protesting against the government on July 11.

Barbara Farrat, the mother of 17-year-old Jonathan Torres Farrat, said she decided to stop eating Saturday “because of the increased repression and harassment my son and I are facing from state security agents.”

In a phone interview with the Miami Herald, Farrat, an HIV patient, said she had stomach pains and was feeling nauseous, but she was determined to go all the way.

“The message that I want to send to the authorities is that they must release my son, that they no longer harass my son in prison; he is a minor,” she said. “I am not afraid of them. I am afraid that my son will rot in prison; that does scare me. There is no way to shut me up.”

Relying on a technicality in the Cuban penal law that sets the legal age at 18 but allows prosecuting those 16 and older, government officials have denied imprisoning minors. But at least 44 adolescents between 14 and 17 were detained, and 14 are still in jail, for participating in the July 11 anti-government protests around the island, according to a list of verified detentions compiled by legal aid organization Cubalex with the help of volunteer activists that created the group Justicia 11J.

That number could be even higher, Farrat said. “Publicly, there are only 14, but I know five or six who are with my son, who are not included in the public lists. I know that a lot of mothers are afraid to speak out publicly,” she said, adding that state security agents have threatened her son with a long sentence if she continues to denounce his situation on social media.

Torres Farrat was supposed to be caring for his baby. Instead, her mother said, he has been jailed for four months and has not been formally charged. Authorities have rejected all appeals for his release. He is currently at a prison for minors in Havana.

Two months had passed before prison authorities allowed Farrat to give him his heart condition medication. His cardiologist had advised that he get a blood pressure reading twice a day. That has never happened while in jail, his mother added.

The Cuban official news outlet Cubadebate published Monday a defense of the Attorney General’s treatment of minors. Following international criticism of the authorities’ crackdown on protesters, the Cuban government has touted some changes in the legal code that will begin in January. They include providing parents of minors with immediate notification of detentions and allowing legal representation from the beginning of the process.

But it is unclear if those changes will benefit those already in jail.

Yanaisy Curbelo, the mother of Brandon David Becerra Curbelo, who was detained a week after the July 11 protests, also reported several violations of due process regarding his case, including a sudden change of charges that meant he is now facing an 18-year sentence on charges of sedition.

Becerra was studying to become a Spanish teacher. He was detained on July 16 while eating pizza with his 13-year-old younger brother near their home. Although at the time Becerra was 17, he turned 18 in jail.

“A patrol car came with four officers and a van, with 12 or 15 men dressed in civilian clothes from state security. Brandon was listening to music with his headphones. They grabbed the phone from him, handcuffed him, pushed him against the patrol car and shoved him in the van,” Curbelo said. “My 13-year-old boy is the one who comes crying and asks me about what has happened to his brother.”

Initially, authorities told Becerra’s lawyer that he was accused of “public disorder” and “propagating an epidemic.” Her mother thought he would just be fined. But a few days before a planned opposition march on Nov. 15, state security agents went to the prison for minors where he is being held in Havana to tell him he was facing an 18-year sentence under sedition charges. In Cuba’s penal code, sedition is a vaguely defined crime that prosecutors can use against anyone deemed to be “disturbing the socialist order.”

His lawyer was not notified until a week later.

Becerra, who contracted COVID-19 while in prison, also told his mother that state security agents regularly interrogate him and pressure him to admit engaging in violent behavior during the island-wide demonstrations.

Her mother is worried about his mental state. She was not allowed to see him for three months.

“These people are doing whatever they want with these cases,” she said. “All he did was shout ‘Patria y Vida’ [Homeland and Life] and that ‘Cuba was hungry’ and film what was happening. They want to make an example out of the imprisoned children.”

According to a list published by Justicia 11J, 15 trials of protesters charged with sedition are scheduled for this week. Another 140 also charged with the same crime are still awaiting trial, said Salomé García Bacallao, an activist with Justicia 11J. The organization has documented 79 trials and another 356 demonstrators formally indicted. Cubalex and Justicia 11J have verified 1,070 detentions in connection with the protests, but activists believe the true number could surpass 1,300 arrests.

Activists used Human Rights Day last week to highlight these and other cases of demonstrators jailed in Cuba. On a live stream produced by Cuba Spaces on Twitter on Friday afternoon, families shared their desperation and called on the international community not to abandon them.

“I miss my father a lot; it’s been a month since I haven’t been able to see him,” said the 11-year-old daughter of Nadir Perdomo in a video. Perdomo, who is also the father of a baby boy, and his cousin Jorge are in prison for demonstrating against the government.

The family has been torn apart for four months, said Betty Guerra, another cousin. She said the Perdomo cousins have reported beatings by the correctional officers to force them to chant the government slogan Patria o Muerte, Homeland or Death.

Ailex Marcano, mother of Angel J. Veliz, a protester jailed in the central province of Camagüey, said she was unable to see her son for three months. She said she has been constantly harassed by high-ranking state security officials because she has spoken to the independent media about her son’s case.

“I will continue to fight for his freedom because I know that my son is a worthy young man,” she said during the show.

Most of the family members who have spoken to the media were not previously involved in politics and were unfamiliar with the repression unleashed against dissidents over the decades. Most were born after Castro took power in 1959 and sent hundreds of Fulgencio Batista’s supporters to the firing squad.

“I never thought that the state was so cruel that it did not realize that it is the right of the people to demonstrate; that is not a crime,” Farrat, the mother on the hunger strike, said. “They are playing with the lives of our kids.”