Thread by @HillelNeuer

Despite Havana's efforts to silence her, Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera managed to submit testimony about the regime’s oppression to the 2021 @GenevaSummit of dissidents and former political prisoners. She now fears “the potential consequences.“
genevasummit.org/cuban-dissiden…

.@Immigrantmove: "Imagine yourself walking on the streets with a friend and suddenly, a car stops, and four people emerge from the car and force you to get inside of it. Once you are inside; you realize that those with you are state security agents..." genevasummit.org/tania-bruguera…

"You arrive to a police station, and they make you remove your clothes, they interrogate you, they don’ t allow to make a call and noone knows where you are. Imagine that you are one of the 170 political prisoners in Cuba today."

"Imagine that you are having lunch and the police break into your home and take you before you have a chance to put your shoes on. Shortly thereafter you find yourself in a prison cell with common prisoners awaiting trial for completely fabricated charges."

"Imagine how would you feel if you know that you have no real legal protection because your appointed attorney works under direct orders from the government. Cuban lawyers may represent their defendants, but they work in the interest of the State."

"Imagine a place where it is the exception rather than the rule that the police let you leave your house. Imagine seven months have passed by and although you have not committed any crime you are prevented from leaving your home to buy a bread or to take out the trash."

"Imagine that state security agents are standing guard outside your house twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. You can’t even dream of going out. Imagine going to prison because you asked to explain why they were subjecting you to such treatment."

"Imagine that you are unable to leave your home and that you have no telephone or internet for months. On top of this you know that your friends are being harassed and imprisoned."

"Imagine that each time you try to tell your story to the world your internet service is cut off by only phone company in the country, which happens to belong to the government."

"Imagine that people you know are afraid to lend you the phone line under their name for you to use because they know that electronic surveillance is one of the priorities of the Cuban government."

"Imagine turning on the TV to watch the only national newscast in your country and suddenly finding that your personal telephone number with your name next, the address of your house and your personal information is on the screen."

"A news anchor stresses to listeners that indeed it is your number and here they can find you. Several hours later your voicemail fills up with hate messages left by people you do not know."

"Imagine knowing that most of those messages are generated by government agents passing themselves off as “the people” so if someone harms you physically afterwards, they can attribute to the aggression to civilians."

"Imagine that someone on the street whom you don’t know runs towards you with a machete in his hand because of the hate speech generated by the government."

"Imagine watching a national news program in which your private correspondence has been taken out of context, edited, and interpreted in such a way to serve a narrative that has nothing to do with your intentions, your actions or your way of thinking."

"Imagine seeing the newscaster point to fake documents bearing the logo of your organization. Imagine being the target of a government that, having lost its legitimacy, rationalizes its excessive use of force by criminalizing people who just ask for their basic human rights."

"Imagine that you have no right to challenge your government."

"Imagine that you file a defamation case against your government and it is rejected because according to the court the government has the right to a free press — in a country where independent journalists are persecuted, where citizens’ access to independent media via internet..

"is blocked, where citizen journalism is penalized to such an extent if you post a statement on Facebook that is critical of the government, you will be sought out and fined more than your monthly salary. If you do not pay the fine you will go to prison."

"Imagine that you die on hunger strike in prison.

Imagine that you are Black and poor, and a policeman kills you. The government justifies the killing even if you were unarmed and shot in the back."

" Imagine that the police kill a poor young Black man and if anyone dares to say something or demonstrate publicly, they are arrested."

"Imagine you are a woman, and a policeman rapes you or your partner commits femicide and you are not even a statistic because your government does not keep records of such violence."

"Imagine that you are part of the LGBTIQ+ community & you can only be heard if you are part of the organization lead by the daughter of the ex-president of the country. Imagine you are an activist and because of that you are a treated as a non-person, as someone without rights."

"Imagine that your daughter studies journalism and was persecuted and expelled from her university because of her opinion, that she leaves the country because that is her only way to complete her studies."

"Then when she graduates and buys her ticket to come back the government doesn’t allow her to return to her own country. The Cuban government does not solve its problems, it simply expels those who keep remind them there are problems to solve."

"They do not want anyone that criticize or oppose their political system.

Imagine that you have a daughter who dies because the balcony of a building falls on her while she was playing on the sidewalk."

"After you have inquired everywhere you can think of to find out who is accountable for the unsafe living conditions that people contend with to no avail, you desperately go out to the street to ask for justice and you end up in jail."

More from Tania Bruguera's powerful testimony to #GenevaSummit2021:

#IStandWithTaniaBruguera

genevasummit.org/tania-bruguera…