Both received a court order on Thursday, in the hours before the hearing, which referred to a reorganization of judicial activity.
The Matanzas Municipal Court has annulled the trial of Alina Bárbara López Hernándz and Jenny Pantoja, scheduled for this Friday, January 30. Both received a court order on Thursday, in the hours leading up to the hearing, citing a reorganization of judicial activity as the reason for the suspension and indicating that the situation will not change “until a new date is set.”
López and Pantoja are accused of assaulting a police officer for the events of June 18, 2024, when they had an incident with officers attempting to prevent the protests they hold on that day every month. In May 2025, the prosecution requested a four-year prison sentence for the intellectual, which was later commuted to correctional labor without confinement, while for the anthropologist, the request was for three years, also with the option of a correctional labor sentence.
According to Pantoja, who made the court order public on her Facebook account, the lawyer informed her of the receipt of the document shortly after 5:00 p.m. this Thursday. “The trial seems to be dragging on indefinitely. We have been patient, but we are not willing to continue, forever and ever, unjustly limited by precautionary measures,” the activist stated.
Pantoja adds that this is a political trial and that “citizens who, in exercising their rights, suffered the full force of police brutality should never have been prosecuted.” Furthermore, she believes the real reason for suspending the proceedings is the Cuban regime’s intention to “avoid a trial, due to the high cost it entails for them.”
See this post on Facebook here.
López Hernandez has not yet commented, although both are expected to give further explanations this Friday through the Cuba X Cuba platform.
One person who did speak out was Cuban economist and a friend of the professor, Mauricio de Miranda Parrondo, who asked the judges to have the “courage” to definitively cancel the trial. “Annul this farce, which will be yet another stain of shame on the Cuban judicial system, as are all the sentences handed down by the courts that have tried those who have protested against a regime that keeps the country in misery and expects us all to accept it as if we were servants,” he wrote on social media.
The economist considers the behavior of the island’s judges “shameful,” stating that “they have abdicated their duty to administer justice. When they deliver injustice, they lose their very nature and the respect of the people, because they renounce their duty to submit to power.” De Miranda Parrondo also called for “the release of all political prisoners in Cuba.”
López Hernández and Pantoja reported that on the day of the events for which they are charged, both were victims of mistreatment. According to the professor’s testimony, they were trying to arrest her when the officer used a “martial arts technique,” causing her to fall and hit her head hard. The professor was later diagnosed with post-traumatic labyrinthitis, an inflammation of the inner ear that affects balance.
“The obvious intention is to involve me in a common, not political, process,” said López at the time, who was placed under house arrest.
Torres and Pantoja have received solidarity from friends, intellectuals and international human rights organizations, who are calling for an end to the coercive measures against freedom of expression and assembly.
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