Teacher was fired, without being allowed to defend herself, for exercising her rights to freedom of expression and association

A Cuban teacher was the victim of the disregard for her right to defense and her dignity by the director of education, Ms. Saidy Villega Frometa, and the head of human resources, Fautino González Esteves. These individuals verbally humiliated the victim and did not allow her to defend herself from the injustice being committed against her. The head of human resources, Mr. Fautino González Esteves, told this woman that she could not be saying the things she was saying about the education officials. This gentleman was referring to the fact that the teacher said that what they had done to her was an injustice by not allowing her to continue working in education, that she had committed no crime that she should regret, and that all she had done was tell the truth. The victim also said that if they were going to imprison or punish her for that reason, they could do so because she was not doing anything illegal, that they were committing an injustice because a person could not be punished for the simple fact of relating to people who thought differently from them. The victim also said that the reason she was being punished was because she spoke freely and had friends that the Department of State Security (DSE) did not like, but that it was not a crime to associate with people who thought differently from others.