Video: Cuban forces raided a house and shot a man who took part in the protests

Cuban government forces raided a house in the city of Cárdenas, east of Havana, while children were present and shot a man, according to family members and videos that have gone viral on social media.

Marbely Vásquez, a Cárdenas resident, told el Nuevo Herald that security officers broke into her home on Tuesday morning and shot her husband, Daniel Cárdenas Díaz, 34.

The videos show her shouting at armed officers while she is carrying one of her children.

“My children are here,” Cárdenas shouts in the video, “my children, my children, my children,” she repeats. “Why do they do that?” she yells as they try to break down a door.

Moments later, armed special forces agents entered through the back door with a dog, the videos show. The videos do not show the shooting, but there is blood on the floor of the living room of the house.

After they shot her husband, “[the agents] entered my bedroom when I was with my children,” two-year-old twins and a 12-year-old boy, Vásquez said. “I was very nervous.”

The woman said the officers shot her husband at least once, but she was unsure how many times they fired. They also beat him, she said.

Authorities told her that her husband was taken to Santa Marta police station in Varadero, a nearby seaside resort, where he received medical attention, she said.

Vásquez said that she does not know why regime agents raided her home and shot her husband.

Cárdenas had participated in anti-government demonstrations that erupted Sunday in Cárdenas and islandwide and have left at least one dead. “But he didn’t hurt anyone or do anything,” Vásquez said.

A Cuban newscast Wednesday evening cast doubt on how the events are depicted on the video, and showed Cárdenas on camera answering questions from police. The newscast said Cárdenas had broken into a government store.

More than 100 activists and journalists are still under detention, according to several organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Cubalex, an organization that offers legal aid to dissidents in Cuba. The total number of those detained might be higher since many ordinary Cubans who were not involved with the dissident movement also protested in the streets. Information coming out of the island is still limited because the government shut down the internet service and censored several communication platforms.

Orlando León, Cárdenas’ cousin and a Tampa resident in Florida, said that “they are holding him incommunicado.”

The police told his wife to look for painkillers for her husband, because there were no medications to give him at the police station, said León, who said he did not know why his cousin was targeted by police.

Several videos showing the police beating and shooting at demonstrators have been shared on social media in the past few days. Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel called on fellow communists to use “any means necessary” to confront the protesters whom the government has labeled “mercenaries” and “delinquents.”

Cuban authorities have repeatedly blamed the U.S. for orchestrating and financing the protests, which the island’s foreign minister called “small disturbances” in a press conference on Tuesday. He also warned the U.S. that it was risking a new exodus of Cuban migrants if it keeps its policies of “aggression” against the Cuban government.

U.S. officials have dismissed claims that the administration is behind the protests and warned Cubans not to take to the sea.

This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 11:56 AM with the headline "Video: Cuban forces raided a house and shot a man who took part in the protests."