Citizen humiliated and threatened for requesting social assistance

Mrs. Nory Salazar Suárez is the mother of 2 minor children, she has serious economic and housing problems. She was summoned to the municipal government of Guantánamo on 17th February at Avenida y Pedro Aperes in order to be attended to by the head of the government due to her housing situation. Present at the meeting were the head of municipal housing, the head of physical planning, the head of the inspectorate, the social worker and other officials. Ms. Salazar explained her situation and expressed that she felt unprotected and in extreme distress because she did not have access to electricity, water and other services. She also said that she was begging the government to help her with her children and housing, that she was aware that under the Constitution and other regulations the State should help her as much as possible and that evicting her was not a solution, but rather created another problem. When she finished her speech, the head of the municipal government of Guantánamo humiliated her in front of the other officials and told her that she was going to the streets, that if she did not leave they would break everything in front of her children and that she would go to prison and the children to the house of the homeland, that the person who told her about her supposed rights were counter-revolutionaries and that the revolution would not allow anything like that, that she should stand up and wait for the social worker in her house because she would be prosecuted for being illegal.