Cuban Agents Threaten to Take 5 Children to Silence Critic
Diasniurka Salcedo’s tireless efforts despite the pressure
This happened after launching a smear campaign against her on social networks.
HAVANA TIMES – Activist Diasniurka Salcedo Verdecia denounced this Friday that she has received threats from agents of the regime to snatch away five children who are in her care. The woman, who on November 24 reported the protest of a group of mothers in front of the Ministry of Public Health, took in several minors, children of parents who are in prison, deceased or abusive, and she is in the middle of a process to obtain legal custody of them.
In her Facebook post, Salcedo Verdecia explains that after launching a campaign to discredit her on social networks, representatives of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, as well as several social workers, showed up at her home. The objective of the visit, she said, was to let her know that she was a “bad influence” on the minors and that she runs the risk of losing in the procedures to grant her custody of the minors, whom Salcedo defines at all times as “her children.”
“I don’t care about the Family Code, my children are happy and don’t lie, they know freedom and they have plenty of love, something that you don’t know. (…) I’m not going to stop supporting mothers because we don’t commit any crimes, much less am I going to be silent in exchange for my children. My fight is precisely for their future,” said the activist.
Salcedo has described on several occasions the cumbersome legal process she faces to gain custody of the five minors, who come from vulnerable contexts about which, generally, “the regime does not comment.”
The activist added that the children have been living with her for between three and four years and that during the formal visit, the agents told her that the oral hearing, in which she was to appear with regards to the situation of the children, is on hold.
Salcedo transmitted through her social networks the protests of several mothers in front of the Ministry of Public Health. As a result of her support for the mothers, who were demanding better quality care for their own children, both she and her husband, who was arrested that day, had a precautionary measure imposed on them.
After the protest, several mothers reported that the authorities offered their children medical care to “shush them.” However, in most cases, the caare provided was not up to the severity of the children’s conditions, which require long-term treatments.
Some of the parents, residents of Pinar del Río and Mayabeque, were detained before being able to reach the corner of 23rd and N, in Vedado, to demonstrate, according to what Salcedo herself reported that day.
Translated by Translating Cuba