Taxi Driver Arrested In Havana After Being Accused Of Racism

Taxi Driver Arrested In Havana After Being Accused Of Racism

14ymedio, Havana, 10 July 2017 – The driver of a private taxi was
arrested after being accused of racial discrimination by Yanay Aguirre
Calderín, according to a report Monday in the weekly paper Trabajadores
(Workers). The event has generated numerous articles in the official
press which is making an example of the case.

On 2 July, the same weekly published an article by Calderín, a law
student who is black, where she related how she engaged the taxi and was
treated aggressively by the drive due to the color of her skin.

According to prosecutor Rafael Ángel Soler López, head of the Office of
Attention to the Citizenry of the Attorney General's Office, "We cannot
yet anticipate what the end of the process will be," since they are now
"investigating to be able to prove the criminal act before the courts."

The Cuban Penal Code establishes a penalty of between six months and two
years of deprivation of liberty, or a fine of between 200 and 500 CUP,
to anyone who denies "on the grounds of sex, race, color or national
origin the exercise or enjoyment of the rights of equality established
in the Constitution."

Aguirre Calderín, who does not specify the exact date of the events,
took the private car on Avenida 41, in the Marianao municipality, but
when she wanted to change her destination, the driver reacted "very
upset" and "very violently." The young woman explains that at that
moment the driver shouted that "every time there is a black person in
his car it's the same" and that for that reason "he could not stand them."

Calderín then rebuked the driver, whom she accused of offending her, to
which the taxi driver responded by asking the passenger to get out of
the car before arriving at the place initially designated by her. At
that moment the complainant took a photograph of the car with her cell
phone and noted the number of the license plate, which facilitated the
arrest of the driver by the police.

Source: Taxi Driver Arrested In Havana After Being Accused Of Racism –
Translating Cuba -
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