Diosvany Salazar Rodríguez

“No, I couldn’t reach the net. ‘Your internet service was cut off?’ Indeed. And that was the consequence of my first post I made. Also, some of my archived files were stolen from my house, some robber boys took it. It happened on the 13, no, on December 3, 2019. I have a photo of the robbers on my phone, police came to my house, they did what they had to do, they took the thief, but the next day they released them, because one of them was a relative of a policeman. I decided to protest and published some slogans like ‘Away with the Guantanamo Prosecutor’s Office’, ‘Away with the Communist Party’, ‘Away with the State Security, they are all corrupt, totally in agreement with the thieves’, and that is how I started to publish on internet. Then they summoned me for Operations, pretending like they were going to solve the problem of my stolen files, instead of that there were two officers from the State Security waiting for me.”

“Buddy, making a charcoal is not easy, it is crazy. You wake up when it is still dark outside, when you get there to the mountain, all those bushes are full of thorns and you have to clean them one by one. Then chop that bush, pull and chop. Then you must be careful with the access of the air, to cover the fire with the grass, but it is difficult to find some. Ignite the candle, observe the fire all the time, but sometimes you find a hole and all the coal burns, and you have nothing. There you have to be constantly watching, during the day and night. Don’t let it burn. ‘In how many days is it done?’ Since you start, ten or fifteen days. Making a charcoal is a huge risk, this money is not sure. ‘You have to be constantly in the mountains watching it, 24 hours a day.’ Yes, and when you are ready, you have to remove the coal, transport it to your village where they pay you ridiculously low amount for it. This sacrifice is tough.”

“Well, the water is already critical question here, the water is brought by the aqueduct, it is eight kilometers long pipeline, however the people puncture it, so that the cows could drink water and only little water reaches our community Maquicito. I decided to ubicate several posters with slogans ‘Away Fidel’, because we didn’t have any water, the water is still critical topic. And that was the moment, when the Government started to construct new water supply, nevertheless, there is still a problem with the water. For example, yesterday, we were the whole day without water and at the evening we could filled only one bottle of water. The water conduit has no pressure, they don't refill it, they don’t fill the tank well in the city La Herradura. The water represents really critical topic.”