What's happening in Cuba today: 10 questions to youtuber Dina Stars after her release

Florence Chicano Ramos

07/31/2021 3:34 PM

• Clarín.com

• Dresses

Updated 07/31/2021 3:34 PM

It is nine o'clock at night in Cuba and

Dina Fernández (25)

is defeated by lack of sleep.

His face reflects the more than 35 notes he gave to the international press within 15 days.

She is tired, burdened, and exhausted.

Those are all the words you use to express what you feel right now.

On July 11, thousands of Cubans marched through the streets of the small town of San Antonio de los Baños, southwest of Havana, in an unprecedented protest against their government, asking for food and medicine.

That claim quickly turned into a cry of plea for freedom across the country.

The request spread across the island and government supporters came out to defend the regime.

There were bullfights and violent clashes

that were documented in several videos that went viral on social networks.

In the middle of the crash, hundreds of young people were arrested and many disappeared. 

José Miguel Vivanco, Director of Human Rights Watch, published on his Twitter account a list of, in principle,

400 detainees and disappeared after the demonstrations,

which later spread to 729 people, including seven journalists from the international press .

We have conducted dozens of interviews with journalists, activists, and victims in Cuba.

These are our preliminary findings on the crackdown on protests:

- José Miguel Vivanco (@JMVivancoHRW) July 16, 2021

As of July 13, the life of Dina Stars changed completely.

During an interview she was giving live for Spanish television, she was arrested.

Four men - two in uniform and two in civilian clothes, she details - broke into her home

during the live broadcast to arrest her.

This scandal outraged viewers and worried the whole world.

"Security is out. I have to get out ...

I hold the government responsible for anything that may happen to me. They

force me to go with them," Dina said, as best she could, at the time.

His nerves pierced the screen.

Dina was transferred in a patrol car with the agents, without her cell phone and without having contact with her family.

Only the friends who accompanied her at the time of her arrest were witnesses to the event.

Her mother spent hours looking for her in various police stations until the local authorities gave her the right to a call during her stay in prison and only then could she tell her mother that she was fine.

After this episode,

Dina spoke with Clarín

and answered ten key questions about the current situation in Cuba.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by DinaStars 🖤 (@dinastars_)

1. What is happening in Cuba?

-Definitely, everything is a little calmer.

Cuba is more tired, overwhelmed too.

I don't know if they are afraid because of how they have reacted to the demonstrations, but the silence overwhelms you.

2. Do you think there is freedom?

-I do not know.

I think I have never been able to experience what freedom is in general, and what shows me that

I am not free is having to analyze and re-analyze everything that I am going to say,

it is not going to be something that I am saying something that It could put me in danger or it could be a crime.

If when

you don't even have freedom of thought

then you realize that you are not free.

The only fear I have is my mother, who every day tells me to please stay away from politics because she is afraid and does not want her daughter to go to prison, and yet I am always defending what I want.

3. How did the demonstrations start?

-I saw how they began to demonstrate in San Antonio de los Baños and they were demonstrating from different provinces and I said 'if they go out here in Havana, then I'll go'.

We began to find out through social networks that in Havana there were people in the streets and we went.

WALK IN GROUPS OF MORE THAN 4 PEOPLE AND IF YOU ARE APPROACHED HUG YOURSELF NOT TO TAKE YOURS!

#SOSCUBA #CUBALIBRE

- Dina Stars 🖤 (@Dinastars_) July 13, 2021

4. Who stopped you?

-Four policemen arrived and told me to accompany them,

they arrested me for "instigation to commit a crime,"

that is, for promoting the demonstrations, even if they were peaceful.

They took me in a patrol car to a police station and there they explained everything to me, they left me waiting there and then took me to San Antonio de los Baños and there I went where I slept in the cell.

5. What happened in jail?

-I was not in a dungeon because there was no female prisoner and there could not be a single person inside.

He was at the reception of the cell with the three policemen.

There I was sitting on a marble bench that was where I lay down.

I left my house without my cell phone, lest they be confiscated.

At the time of my arrest, I was with my friends and I asked them to tell my mother.

Then she was looking for me in a police station, then she went to another and another, they had her like rallying a bit.

There I said that if I was going to sleep there, I had the right to a call and I called my mother and told her that I was fine.

6. What is known about the detainees?

-They send me photos of people who are missing or detained daily for me to publish.

I don't know exactly what the future holds for those guys.

I don't know if they are going to arrest them, some are already being tried and given a year.

Personally, I have a detained friend who is a singer, who is my age (25 years old) and has been detained for nine days and they do not tell him what is going to happen to him.

BRING POSTERS WITH SPECIFIC MESSAGES!

-FREEDOM

-CUBA LIBRE

-DOWN WITH THE DICTATORSHIP

-DOWN THE BLOCKADE (LET US USE THEIR OWN WEAPONS AGAINST THEM)

We will sit at 2:00 pm IN THE CAPITOL PACIFICALLY.

SILENT.

WE EXPRESS OURSELVES WITH POSTERS!

I'M GOING TO BE THERE #NOTENGOMIEDO

- Dina Stars 🖤 (@Dinastars_) July 13, 2021

7. Can everyone access the internet?

-It's very, very expensive.

A gig of internet costs 100 Cuban pesos,

and more now that we have to use it with KWPN, it is like triple, it lasts much less.

For me, for example, a package of 2.5 gigs that costs 200 Cuban pesos lasts me one day and calculating that the

minimum salary is 2,500 Cuban pesos per month

, it really is a lot.

Internet is a privilege unless you have family abroad and they can recharge money on your cell phone.

8. What are the national media saying about the protests?

-Everything they publish is false.

The national media do not say anything about what is really happening.

They comment that there are people on the street but they misrepresent it.

They say that there are four people who were paid by the United States, but in reality that is not the case.

There were many people, it was the people of Cuba who took to the streets.

9. How did the pandemic affect you?

-The economy has been on the floor due to the lack of tourism and the reality is that with the pandemic 

the hospitals are overcrowded, there is no medicine or medical resources

and that is why people are already desperate.

At first they asked for food and medicine, but then everyone screamed and asked for freedom.

I arrived home after being in a dungeon for 24 hours as if I were a criminal.

Yes, they treated me well, but it is still a night that I do not wish on anyone.

I arrived and found the news that they dumped me like a bitch, well not me, my mother and my friends who were there 👇🏻

- Dina Stars 🖤 (@Dinastars_) July 14, 2021

10. Did you receive hate on the networks?

-I'm risking my freedom, my mental health, my mother's, for something that in the end you say "well, what else can I do".

I can't do anything anymore and people demand and demand of you.

It cannot be so.

When I said I'm not going to give any more interviews because it's hurting me, people took that as an act of being ungrateful.

On Friday I will start with a psychologist to help me,

at least I will try a first session.

I feel emotionally devastated.

During the interview, Dina explained that at the time of her release they asked her to wait for a call from the authorities to understand her current judicial situation. Since that did not happen until then,

Dina must remain at home.

You can only go out to work, to do the shopping or if you have to go to the hospital for a medical emergency. No authority has yet approached her to clarify the episode.