Cuba is cracking down on critics. This unlikely dissident says he'll protest anyway

[brooklynite]

CNN

Havana, Cuba (CNN)A skinny, bespectacled, left-leaning playwright whose works until recently were promoted by the government would seem an unlikely candidate to become Cuba's public enemy number one.

But Cuban officials are increasingly taking aim at Yunior Garcia Aguilera and his proposal to hold a peaceful political march later this month -- for which the state has already denied permission.

"Cubans have spent too much time in silence," Garcia Aguilera said during an interview in his cramped apartment in the downtrodden San Agustín neighborhood of Havana. "It's time to open our mouths with liberty and say what we think."

Garcia Aguilera is not the typical anti-government Cuban dissident. He has worked for years in state-run theater and television productions, is critical of the US embargo on the island and says he is more liberal than Cuba's "conservative" leadership. Cuban state-run media this week compared him to renowned Czech playwright and human rights advocate Vaclav Havel, although the description was not meant as a compliment.

His planned march is intended to call for democratic reforms to the Caribbean nation's political system, as well as the release of political prisoners. In response, the Cuban state has targeted him with an onslaught of accusations.