“I would like to take this opportunity to make known before national and international public opinion, that today at 6 p.m. I will begin a hunger strike until my younger sister, Caridad García Pérez, is offered a just and humane solution to the sad problem she is currently facing. Her current house is about to collapse, and such an occurrence will most definitely put her nine-year-old daughter’s, as well as her own life at risk. I have decided to take this step after exhausting all other legal channels. For example, this past March 8, I submitted a letter concerning this situation to the municipal government of Placetas. The letter even included photographs to demonstrate the deplorable conditions they are obligating her to live in. I would like to make known above all, that my sister suffers from mental problems and is not physically or mentally equipped to bring forth a claim, and initiative at this level. During my long 17 years in prison, she was threatened and coerced in an attempt to keep her from visiting me in prison or visiting our sister Bertha Antúnez, because we are supposedly counterrevolutionary elements. What I mean by this is that any statement or stance that she may assume against this claim I am making, would be made under pressure, threats, and blackmail. Therefore, nothing will stop me in this call for justice. This situation is simply an extension of the racist and repressive policies of State Security. Their policy is not only against activists and their families, such as my family members who are activists, Bertha Antúnez, Alejandro García, my niece Damaris, and my wife Iris, just to name a few, but also stretches to this innocent, naïve person with mental disease and an extremely critical economic situation. At any given moment, her house can collapse. Her and her daughter can lose their lives.”

The Cuban Democratic Directorate has audiovisual materials of Caridad García Pérez’s living conditions and this family’s claim to resolve her terrible living situation. This material is available to the media upon request.