Graduates of the Lenin School Show Solidarity with the San Isidro Movement

December 1, 2020. The alumni demand the release of political prisoners and the transparency of the Cuban legal and penitentiary system.

A group of graduates of the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Vocational School in Havana, where for decades most of the children of Cuban leaders have studied, published a letter in which they joined in support of the San Isidro Movement and the artists who they demanded that the Ministry of Culture respond to their demands.

In a letter published on the group's Facebook wall, called "Lenin Graduates for Change", and which does not indicate who and how many are the signatories, it is stated that they are in disagreement with the "Cuban political system, whose rejection of dissenting voices demanding changes in the country's administration show its totalitarian nature."

The text endorses the "claim for the freedom of the artists who requested a hearing at MINCULT and the San Isidro Movement. We also condemn the authorities' decision to break into their headquarters under the justification of violations of the pandemic protocol. It is precisely a of the many arbitrary arrests, the one that moves us as a community."

The signatories also made reference to the violent detention last Saturday of the Social Communication student at the University of Havana Rosanne Carmona Gener, "with whom we shared years of study at Lenin."

The university student "was arrested for promoting a peaceful demonstration on social networks. It is imperative to clarify that our feelings differ from those graduates who simultaneously attended a political event promoted by the Government. Their voices had space. For ours there is not?"

"The Cuban Constitution establishes limits to the exercise of rights, stating that these will not be legitimate if they go against the existence and purposes of the Communist Party of Cuba. This displaces those Cubans who think differently from the constitutional framework. We believe that Cuba is of all and therefore there is no place for decrees 349 and 370. Furthermore, as a member of the UN, the Government is obliged to comply with what is postulated in the Declaration of Human Rights. However, we have evidence of non-compliance with the Articles 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 27 ", it continues.

The document demands "the release of political prisoners and transparency as a maxim of the legal and prison system, freedom of expression for Cuban citizens, the cessation of police brutality and the recognition of the opposition as an independent entity, whose interests respond only to the prosperity of the country. We believe that the road to the Cuba we long for begins with free and multi-party elections. "

"We ask for the support of the international community, as well as the pronouncement of Cuban institutions from different social sectors, especially students from vocational schools and universities throughout the country. We identify with all Cubans who join the fight against injustice, corruption, discrimination and the misrepresentation of information by the obsolete government. From our esteem towards the fulfillment of human rights, we understand that the Cuban citizens have been disrespected in an unacceptable and irreconcilable way," concludes the text.

In its heading, the text reads: "Educating myself to serve you is indoctrination, not education."

There are many artists, intellectuals, media, organizations and personalities who have expressed their support for the claims of Cuban groups that, from the repression of the San Isidro Movement, have mobilized to demand the democratization of Cuba and the cessation of the repression.

However, the government has launched a harsh campaign of defamation of activists and intimidation in the official media, where it even resorted to false news, while militarizing areas of the Cuban capital and public areas of other cities in the country.

After the publication of the letter from Lenin graduates, several of the comments in the forum asked that the document be opened to the collection of signatures of other graduates interested in subscribing to it.