November 24, 2020

Your Holiness Pope Francis:

There are seven Cubans who are today leading a hunger strike in Cuba; sixteen people arrested for trying to show their solidarity in the face of the injustice of the strikers, and dozens of those who have suffered state repression so far this month. For all of them, especially those who have recourse moved by a thirst for justice, we ask, Holy Father, on behalf of thousands of Cubans who value life, please intercede for them. Help us save them.

Saint Isidro is the name of a neighborhood in Havana where the headquarters of the homonymous Movement of Independent Cuban Artists is located, which today is under siege by Cuban paramilitary and intelligence forces. Seven of its members are today on their fourth day of hunger strike. Some of them are on hunger and thirst strike. The latter begin to show signs of deterioration. Each hour that passes marks the countdown to irreversible damage to their bodies and to the Cuban nation. It is symbolic that, Saint Isidro, the Patron Saint of the land workers, to whom the piece of land that these Cubans inhabit owes its name, is witnessing the slow and heartbreaking fall into the pit of death to which they lead to a dead end. We ask Saint Isidro and you, Your Holiness, for urgent intervention before Lord and before those who play being God in Havana’s government.

Saint Isidro Movement began its most recent odyssey on November 9, with the arrest of one of its members, Denis Solís. In a summary process of 72 hours, Solís was sentenced to eight months in prison for contempt of authority, a common cause that the Cuban judicial system uses to imprison critics of the Cuban government. In protest, his fellow movement members began a "Poetic Whisper" in front of the police station where Denis Solís was being detained. Every time they went, they were detained for a few hours and beaten, until they decided to move to the headquarters of their Movement in the Saint Isidro neighborhood. There they were besieged by the Cuban Security Intelligence forces which even prevented them from receiving food. They were then forced to declare a hunger strike, as the food they had was not enough for everyone present. Among them were vulnerable people, including a cancer patient, whose diet had to be prioritized. Every day, under the gaze of the agents positioned on the street corners, a different act occurs against the physical and psychological integrity of the strikers and those who accompany them: they have thrown chemicals of unknown effect at them and the door of the old colonial building has been knocked down. Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García and two nuns have been prevented from visiting them and the international press too. Thousands of people, as well as international media such as the Washington Post and organizations such as Amnesty International, have spoken out against these injustices and demanded that the attacks on the strikers stop. That is why we turn to you, Holy Father, so that, in your infinite goodness towards the vulnerable, you may pave the way to understanding and sanity. Seven lives depend on it.

Sincerely,

Annarella Grimal Saad

Aldo Miguel Santos Hernández

Eloy Viera Cañive

Lyn Cruz

Ramón Gabriel Pérez