Artículo Claridad traducido al inglés por la Ca.Deborah B. Santana. Nina Droz: A case tainted by politics AUG 10, 2017 - Independence, civic and human rights organizations have denounced that the intervention and accusation by the US government against the young activist has the clear intention to intimidate, so that the people of Puerto Rico will not protest, in particular against the imposition of the Fiscal Control Board. By Candida Cotto CLARIDAD, published Wednesday, August 9, 2017 "Nina has always been a very cheerful girl, positive, loving everything that is natural. She rescues animals, she rescued seven dogs. She loves riding horses. When she was 12 years old she took classes with Dona Ella Cuevas, a lady who taught her to do many things besides simply riding a horse." When the mother of Nina Droz Franco, Aurea Franco Ortíz, describes her daughter her eyes shine. She recognizes that it is difficult to speak of the situation. The young activist has already been charged in the federal court (US Government) for the first time with "conspiracy" and “trying to set a fire” inside the headquarters of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico. The alleged actions occurred during the massive demonstration on May 1 in the financial district of Hato Rey (San Juan), or the so-called "Golden Mile." Sectors and organizations of independence, civic and human rights in Puerto Rico have denounced that the intervention and accusation by the US government against the young activist has the clear intention to intimidate, so that the people of Puerto Rico will not protest, in particular against the imposition of the Fiscal Control Board. "The next day we found out that Nina was in the federal prison in Guaynabo. We had no idea why Nina was there because she did not break windows, and she did not burn anything. She took nothing to the protest to burn, because what she said that they found was a little paper towel, which did not shown on TV." Recalling the day her daughter was arrested, Dona Aurea questioned why the feds insisted on assuming jurisdiction over the arrest of her daughter, when, like other protesters, she was arrested by the Puerto Rico Police and taken to a police station in Bayamón. The mother sighs and makes a gesture of effort to remember that day, "let me do a little memory I was watching the television coverage of the protest, and saw a group come out of the woods and begin to break windows, and I stared, saying my gosh, but that there is a mess!” She added that she had to leave for Dorado and could not continue watching the transmission. On the way she heard a reporter on the radio saying that the police had begun to arrest everyone. "I had already seen on TV when the police withdrew. I imagine that at that moment these boys appeared and began breaking windows (makes a gesture of effort), and the police did not appear anywhere." After learning of the arrest later that day she and Nina's father, Evelio Droz, went to the police station to bring her some personal effects, especially her medications. But when they arrived it was too late and they could not leave her things. The next day her daughter called her and told her they were going to transfer her to the federal prison. About the consequences of that transfer for her daughter’s health, she said: "since childhood Nina has been treated for depression, and has always had medications since she was a little girl. That's why we have insisted so much on bringing her the medications." The mother claims that the medical diagnoses do not seem to have much weight in the federal court, since it was not until after the first two months of detention that they allowed her to bring to Nina her medicines. The parents of the young activist have the right to visit her on Wednesdays (from 5 until 8 pm), and Saturdays. Visits are supposed to last three hours; her mother said that for the first few visits this time was fulfilled. However, since then they have almost never had three hours because they can not enter until six in the afternoon for one or another excuse of prison rules…and by a quarter to eight the prison guards tell them that the visit is over. The Spanish and mathematics teacher who worked for 30 years at a public school in Bayamón, said she did not get to see the press conference in which the chief federal prosecutor, Rosa Emilia Rodriguez, presented the accusations and made negative descriptions about his daughter. In a sense Aurea felt that Rodríguez tried to humiliate her daughter. "She (refers to Rodriguez) does not know all the times that Nina worked, she does not know the life of Nina to make a trial in front of the media. I want to say that Nina is not a girl who “breathes fire." Doña Aurea added that her daughter has a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Interamerican University in Bayamón, studied for a master's degree in communications at the University of Florida, worked in the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and has been a children’s art teacher, among other jobs. On the allegation by prosecutor Rodriguez that her daughter was known as "the woman who breathes fire," Franco explained that her daughter played a small role, in a scene that did not last even five minutes, in a film “Runner, Runner”, filmed in Puerto Rico. She played the role of a “fire-eater” at a fair. To do that little job Nina burned herself a lot of times (pointing to her chest) while learning to do the stunt. “That is a liquid that must be put in your mouth, that is the famous 'woman who eats fire', which is unjust, because she only went there to earn money, to work, to do a job and got burned a lot of times to do that. But she did it, she did it, that was all as far as her foray into film and with fire, that's all." Three days before her 37th birthday, young Nina Droz was transferred from her cell to the "hole" (solitary confinement), according to the prison authorities because a piece of plastic was found in her cell. This incident seems suspicious to the mother. "Nina birthday was Sunday, July 30. An announcement had been put in Facebook, inviting people on the 29th because on the 30th was a big event in Peñuelas. All this had been announced." The idea was to hold a party and place a banner in a place on the street that Nina could see from her cell. "But what happened," she asks suspiciously, "on Wednesday, Nina told me that they did a doping test, I was surprised but I said nothin. I thought how strange, there are so many girls here and they have chosen her when we are going to celebrate her birthday that has been announced so much. Then on Thursday she says 'Mommy, they are going to put me in the hole' because they found in her cupboard a piece of plastic, which meant that Nina could not enjoy her birthday. I think it was premeditated, how is it possible that for a foolishness, now they find a piece of plastic, so that my daughter is in the hole. A week later - at the time of this interview - Nina was still in the hole. Her mother has no doubt that her daughter has been used as a "scapegoat." In spite of the circumstances, she expressed appreciation for the support they have received. "Students write to Nina, have written to her from Germany, from Málaga, from Aibonito, Puerto Rico, a 12 year old boy wrote. I think in a certain sense to know that so many people who did not know that you existed and write to you with so much affection, with so much interest to be there, to visit her, to wish her good things, the support and solidarity from so many people, for her that does her good. " In a separate interview, attorney Mariana Nogales (who is a friend of Nina Droz and while not her legal representative is allowed to visit her) informed us that at the moment they expect the federal court to set a date for the sentencing hearing. She reported that the court imposed a gag order on Nina's legal representation, so that they are not allowed to publicly discuss the case. For Nogales both the fact that the US Government has assumed the case, not having granted bail, as well as the gag order, are aspects that have no valid reason to exist. As a lawyer who also is licensed to argue in the Federal court, she denounced that the proceedings by the federal prosecutor is tempered by politics. Nogales and Nina's mother agreed and emphatically stated that Nina’s recent agreement to plead guilty to the crime of conspiracy did not entail on Nina's part any cooperation agreement with the authorities. As for Nogales, she commented, "I see her as doing very well. It was initially very difficult because of her lack of medical treatment, but she seems to have finally made an adjustment because I have seen her more encouraged during our last two visits." However, Nogales brought to our attention that the young activist has a cut in one of her ankles that, although it was stitched a bump was left that bothers her. "I think that in general terms there was no reason for the federal court to intervene, and that the reason for intervening is a policy in order to intimidate people into being frightened and to prohibit freedom of expression. All other cases have been seen in the state (Puerto Rico) courts. The federals sought to enter, sought a way in with a political purpose and for repression” she said. http://www.claridadpuertorico.com/content.html?news=C8EE87DDAE3E96945D3817852AB48880