Cuban Mothers Who Protest and the Power that Represses Them
By Jessica Castro Burunate (El Toque)
HAVANA TIMES – On March 8, 2025, local state-run media published the news of the release of Mayelin Carrasco Alvarez, a mother from Granma who had led a solitary protest three days earlier in a town square in Río Cauto, Granma.
Mayelin, a mother of three children, shouted from a platform: “Where is the Revolution…? Everything has fallen apart.” Minutes later, she was forcibly removed by two plainclothes agents. On March 7, the residents of Guamo Viejo, Río Cauto, took to the streets to demand her release. Cuban women and men have protested out of frustration, asking for food, electricity, and freedom; and now also in solidarity.
There were no surprises in how the local government decided to handle the discontent. Police patrols arrived at the protest. The next day, the media published a photo showing Mayelín supposedly exchanging words with two officials: Yudelkis Ortiz Barceló, the first secretary of the Communist Party in Granma, and Governor Yanetsy Terry Gutiérrez. Ortiz’s publication also made it clear that the “regret of the Granma mother” was expressed, accompanied by the following text:
“(She) knows that the consequences of her actions most affect her loved ones, especially her children, because those who incite haven’t been seen anywhere concerned or involved in their situation.”
It’s not the first time “confessions” obtained under threat or pressure have been used to limit the reach of dissenting voices and those that stir up public sympathy.
In April 2023, the propaganda program Razones de Cuba aired a video of self-incrimination by Sulmira Martinez Perez, known as Salem on social media. Sulmira had been detained since January 2023 for her social media posts calling for protests against the Cuban regime. The apparent “confession” was made under pressure, according to her mother.
It is also not the first time children have been used as coercion tools against mothers; a form of political violence recounted by independent journalists, activists, and women who have protested in public spaces in Cuba.
In December 2018, during an interrogation of independent journalist Luz Escobar, an agent told the reporter: “Listen, Luz Escobar, we know where your daughters play.” He then added: “Think about your daughters, because if you keep doing your job, they will grow up far from you, because you’ll spend a long time in jail,” the reporter told El Estornudo.
On September 29, 2022, Yaima Villavicencio Hernandez and her sister Dayamí joined a protest in Santa Clara. They had been without electricity for three days after Hurricane Ian, and the food was beginning to spoil. They were intercepted by the police and State Security agents. Cristofer, Yaima’s 12-year-old son, was arrested along with them.
During the 25-hour detention, Yaima was threatened with losing custody of her son: “The instructors told me, in front of my son, that they were going to take him away. [Cristofer] cried the whole time and was very scared… My son went without food all that time, and every time they took us to the interrogation rooms, he saw the cells and was very afraid,” she recounted to elTOQUE in 2023.
The protests of mothers
Mothers are a political force in Cuba. Since 2021, protests in public spaces, both physical and virtual, have become more visible and frequent, with demands that highlight the unsustainability of life on the island. In most cases, they have also faced repression.
In October 2023, in another eastern Cuban territory (Maisi, Guantanamo), mothers with their children blocked a road with empty water containers to protest the lack of food and water. The demonstration was dissolved by officers of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) and agents in plainclothes.
After the protests, at least five protesters were summoned and interrogated at the police station, including Yadiuska Dominguez, who had broadcast the images of the protest. Dominguez was threatened by a State Security colonel with severe consequences if she protested again or shared information about the demonstration.
On November 24, 2023, a group of Cuban mothers staged a protest in front of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) headquarters in Havana to denounce the lack of medical attention affecting their children with serious or chronic illnesses.
Activist Diasniurka Salcedo, who was later forced to leave the island, faced precautionary measures for accompanying and spreading news of the protest.
Protests in Granma over detained mother
Residents of Guamo Viejo, Rio Cauto municipality, in Granma, took to the streets on March 7, 2025. They demanded the release of Mayelin Carrasco Alvarez, a mother of three, who was violently arrested two days earlier while protesting peacefully and alone in the Angela Fría square. Later, other neighbors joined the protest to demand her immediate release. Police patrols began moving toward the protest site. On March 8, state-run media published the news of Carrasco’s release.
There were also solitary protests, like Mayelín’s. In June 2023, a Cuban mother sat with her two daughters and some empty containers in the middle of a street in Old Havana. The reason for the protest was the lack of potable water and frequent power outages.
On March 8, 2025, International Women’s Day, Cuban women’s agenda is shaped by the precariousness of life and caregiving; and also by the urgency to recover civil and political rights, which are the foundation for any change.