Category: Translator: LAR

Machado Conde, sentenced to 9 years for the 11J, “has been subjected to multiple cases of abuse in prison,” says the NGO, and has attempted suicide several times.

Other prisoners of conscience at risk of suicide listed in the statement are the men Abel Lázaro Machado Conde, Ismael Rodríguez González, Yasmany González Valdés, Fray Pascual Claro Valladares, Daiver Leyva Vélez, Omar Ortega, and the women Mayelín Rodríguez Prado, Yanet Pérez Quevedo and Lizandra Góngora.

Machado Conde, sentenced to 9 years for 11J, “has been subjected to multiple instances of abuse in prison,” says the NGO, and has attempted suicide several times. In May 2023, after one of these attempts, the authorities of Quivicán prison, in Mayabeque province, where he is serving his sentence, “handcuffed him all night by his hands and feet in a corridor”, and last March, he sewed his mouth shut after a beating and several days in a punishment cell.

For Ismael Rodriguez Gonzalez, the CDPC has registered three “suicidal ideation events”. Sentenced to 7 years for the July 11 demonstrations, he also does not have access to his medication in prison, despite having a diagnosis of intellectual disability, suicidal risk and personality disorder.

Meanwhile, last February, Yasmany González Valdés, sentenced to four years for painting anti-government posters on walls in Havana, told his wife that he had thought of taking his own life, after months of abuse in Cuban prisons and the judicial limbo he was going through at the time.

Another person sentenced for the Nuevitas protests, Daiver Leyva Vélez, sentenced to 10 years for sedition, has tried to hang himself on two occasions.

They also documented that Mayelín Rodríguez Prado and Yanet Pérez Quevedo, political prisoners at the Kilo 5 prison in Camagüey province, attempted to take their own lives “in protest against mistreatment” by prison authorities.

Similarly, Fray Pascual Claro Valladares attempted suicide after learning, last April, of his 10-year sentence for peacefully demonstrating in Nuevitas, Camagüey, in August 2022. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in fact, granted him precautionary measures in July and denounced that “his suicide attempt was handled with negligence, without receiving the necessary psychiatric care and being punished with isolation”.

Another person sentenced for the Nuevitas protests, Daiver Leyva Vélez, sentenced to 10 years for the crime of sedition, has tried to hang himself on two occasions. Both Omar Ortega, imprisoned in Morón, Ciego de Ávila, and Lizandra Góngora, in Los Colonos, Isla de la Juventud, have told their families of their intention to attempt to kill themselves.

On the other hand, Yosandry Mulet Almarales is the second 11J prisoner to die, according to the organization. Last November, Luis Barrios Díaz, also 37 years old, died after “respiratory complications aggravated by the decision of the authorities not to keep him in a Havana hospital,” according to the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights. The State granted Barrios Díaz an out-of-prison leave of absence only when it considered his death imminent, the Initiative denounces.

Translated by LAR

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None of the Mexican authorities made a statement on the matter or officially announced their meeting with the Cuban envoy.

The arrival of the specialists coincided with the Cuban Minister of Public Health, José Angel Portal Miranda’s visit to Mexico. The official met with his Mexican counterpart, Jorge Alcocer, and although a statement issued by the Cuban ministry reported the meeting, aimed at “strengthening collaboration in health matters”, the Mexican media have not reported the trip.

Alcocer is the highest-ranking official to receive Portal Miranda, albeit in a discreet way, a month before President López Obrador hands over power to Claudia Sheinbaum. He was also received at the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) by Alejandro Calderón Alipi, general director of Health Services of IMSS-Bienestar, which is the institution taking in all the Cuban doctors sent to Mexico from 2022.

None of the Mexican authorities made any statement on the matter or officially announced their meeting with the island’s envoy. On the other hand, the Ministry of Public Health assures in its statement that in the meeting with Alcocer, they evaluated the progress of the collaboration in health matters, “which in the last period of work has been strengthened, consolidated and increased, reaching not only the health care area but also the teaching and regulatory field”.

Portal Miranda’s stay has gone by without raising much attention in the Mexican media.

In the same statement, they brag about the actions they have carried out “jointly”, without mentioning any of them, and assure that “the results that have been achieved” are proof of the will to continue working to “promote cooperation in health in different areas”, in spite of “obstacles and limitations”, which they did not provide in detail either.

Cuba’s ambassador to Mexico, Marcos Rodriguez, also alluded in a tweet to talks on the “cooperation of medical specialists” and the “production of medications and shared interests”.

In other activities, Portal Miranda participated in the XI Pan American Conference for the Harmonization of Pharmaceutical Regulation (CPARF), where he ratified Cuba’s “willingness” to “put at the service of the Pan American Health Organization and all the countries of the region, its technical capabilities and experience in the production of medications, biotechnological products and vaccines”.

In his speech, from the central building of the Mexican Foreign Ministry, which served as the venue for the meeting, Portal Miranda said that on the island “in the face of external limitations”, they have learned that the most secure resources they can have are those they are capable of producing on their own.

Although the Cuban Constitution recognizes respect for the prisoner’s dignity, the Penal Code endorses the sanctions for forced labor

Although the Cuban Constitution recognizes respect for the inmate’s dignity, Article 30.3 of the Penal Code endorses the sanctions for forced labor, emphasizes their obligatory nature and leaves it up to the State to “consider the form of compliance through study or betterment”. Through testimonies collected in the report, PD found that attenuated treatment is more than unusual and that compulsory labor is the norm not only for political prisoners but also for ordinary ones.

In a country where production and workforce are scarcities, the regime has found in prisoners the ideal labor force. Inmates are forced to do work no one else is willing to do. PD’s example is the production of marabú charcoal – which brings large profits to the government by being sold abroad – and cutting sugar cane in its harvest season.

“Cuban charcoal is sold in Spain, Portugal and (the rest of) the European Union,” says PD. It is enough to consult the testimony of the relatives of some political prisoners, such as that of Walnier Luis Aguilar’s father, who has denounced how they cut “marabú trunks with their own hands”, without the use of a “machete or axe saw”—the result: “hands full of blisters”, among other injuries.

There are plenty of videos to make the situation clear, PD stresses. “Living without drinking water, in subhuman conditions, with insufficient and outdated work material (the cost of which is deducted from their meager ‘salary’, which many never receive) and sleeping in the open, the workers are forced to work in inhospitable places under the vilest physical, psychological and judicial threats,” they denounce.

The alarming thing, says the organization, is that the product resulting from this slave labor is consumed all over the world with impunity

The alarming thing, says the organization, is that the product resulting from this slave labor is consumed all over the world with impunity. 24% of the Cuban marabou charcoal ends up in the markets of Spain, 21.5% in Portugal, 12.1% in Italy and 11.6% in Turkey, countries with governments with very different ideological leanings which, nonetheless, buy charcoal from Cuba.

PD unequivocally qualifies them as “involuntary accomplices” of the regime since they purchase a product manufactured at the expense of the “suffering and pain” of Cuban prisoners. However, they admit that “Cuba has been able to conceal for years, although not from Cubans, the slave-like origin of its marabou charcoal production”.

The organization hopes that Obokata’s denunciation at the UN will mark a turning point in the fight against these practices on the island. It is calling on the European Union to inform itself about the charcoal it buys and to demand transparency about its production process. The 27 countries are obliged by law not to do business with countries that promote slave labor, they emphasize.

As for sugarcane, PD describes the scenario as a return to the 19th century, when slavery was the engine of the wealthy “sugarocracy”. The difference, in this case, is that not even with its “endless list of human rights violations” does the regime achieve economic prosperity.

As for the rest, there is nothing more similar to a colonial slave than a political prisoner of Castroism. “In most cases, they do not have working gloves, boots or files, which results in the blades not being sharp enough to do the job efficiently”. Everything points to a sort of “involution to centuries ago” that shows the regression, even on a historical level, of the defense of human rights on the island.

There was a skinny, elderly woman in a wheelchair, with asthma, who could no longer walk, who had to leave for work at six o’clock in the morning

The testimonies provided by PD are enough to assess the situation. “There was a skinny elderly lady, in a wheelchair, with asthma, who could no longer even walk, who had to leave for work at six in the morning, like everyone else. No matter their age, health or anything else. There are no conditions for anyone,” says former political prisoner Yanay Solaya. “We work in the fields, whatever they sent us to do, doing the mowing. We did not get paid for it.”

Refusing to work is costly. This is the case, explains PD, of Taimir Garcia, a prisoner of conscience, who was threatened with the withdrawal of her prison leave and the two-month sentence reduction for each year of her sentence, and with being locked up again in a regime of maximum punishment.

Other aspects of the problem, such as the exploitation of children – some prisoners are minors and are subjected to seven-hour working days – or the lack of contracts, should also be a cause for concern, according to PD. The fact that their report has reached the UN Human Rights Council, they believe, justifies paying the utmost attention to the problem and holding Havana accountable.

Translated by LAR

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The mother breathes a sigh of relief since a change to a more severe regime would mean that her daughter must serve the entire sentence.

Although she considers the measure unjust, her mother breathes a sigh of relief, since a change to a more severe regime would mean that her daughter must serve the entire sentence without the right to an early release. “You don’t win against the dictatorship, but the revocation meant she had to serve the three years,” she said.

Oramas was sentenced to six years in prison for participating in the August 15, 2021 protests in front of the funeral home in the city of Santa Clara, where she lives, to demand better health care amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Her husband, Geobel Manso, was also arrested on that day and is currently incarcerated. The court charged Oramas with the crimes of attack and resistance.

Worse off is the political prisoner Loreto Hernández García – arrested after the protests of 11 July 2021 (11J) in Placetas (Villa Clara) – who is serving his sentence in the men’s prison of Guamajal. According to what his daughter Rosabel Sánchez told Martí Noticias after visiting her father and his wife Donaida Pérez Paseiro – also a prisoner of conscience – Hernández is in a bad physical condition.

“During this visit, we were able to talk, we were able to observe, we were able to visualize for ourselves the situation that my father’s health presents. My father, every time we go to see him, he loses more weight,” Sanchez explained. “He often gets a pain on his left side, a pain that radiates to his left lung. He is getting shortness of breath, his diabetes is unbalanced (…) He explains to us that on several occasions he becomes weak and tired. As for his health, we saw that he has not improved at all, he is getting worse and worse, he is in very bad shape,” she denounced.

According to Sánchez, prison authorities use her father’s poor health condition to coerce him.

According to Sanchez, prison authorities use her father’s poor health condition to coerce him and promise him a transfer to a less severe regime where he can be cared for and serve a shorter sentence. “State Security has approached him and has proposed he take advantage of the benefits to give him the minimum sentence and move him to the camp to start granting him leaves and things like that, and both he and his wife refuse these benefits,” said Sanchez, who assures that the couple “is standing firm.”

Hernández and his wife, at the time of the protests, presided over the Asociación Yorubas Libres de Cuba, in Placetas, and were sentenced to seven and eight years in prison respectively. Organizations and institutions such as Amnesty International, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Cuban Prison Documentation Center and Christian Solidarity International, as well as the U.S. State Department, have included them in their reports and records as political prisoners and have demanded the Cuban regime to release them.

Last June, prisoner of conscience Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca arrived in the United States after the authorities forced his departure. He was emaciated and ill as a result of the ill-treatment he suffered at the hands of his jailers. “I have been tortured a lot,” stressed the journalist, who served three years in Havana’s Combinado del Este, the country’s largest prison.

Translated by LAR

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“When we carry out exemplary trials, we enhance communication so that the message we want to convey reaches specific recipients”

Regarding another case linked to illegal slaughter, Sierra Maestra limited itself to saying that the accused had incurred “very repeatedly” in meat trafficking. “It is about a defendant who was caught by the police authorities on the public road in a public transport at the time he was transporting a certain amount of beef,” they explain. There was no information on the other two prosecutions

“When we carry out exemplary trials, we enhance communication so that the message we want to convey reaches certain recipients,” said Geovanis Mestre, one of the judges of the provincial court of Santiago, interviewed by Sierra Maestra. It is essential, he argued, that criminals know that the authorities are targeting illegal cattle slaughtering and that the punishments will be severe.

These trials were not chosen “at random,” said Mestre, but due to the “recurrence” of cattle theft and slaughter in Santiago, a moment that has been “drawing the attention” of the Police, the court decided to make it a “priority behavior in the criminal legal confrontation.”

Mestre invoked Article 29, paragraph 1, of the Criminal Code, which allows for trials guaranteeing “public participation,” as an exercise of “control” over jurisdictions where the crime is repeated. He stated that the ruling is issued “in the name of the Cuban people” so that the authorities can have the population attend the proceedings. It is not a matter of informing – he stressed – but of giving the trial a “preventive” character.

The judge was interested in emphasizing that Justice did not exaggerate the severity of the sentences and that his colleagues acted following the law. The defendants, he said, had “every opportunity to present the evidence they wanted and to make statements on several occasions.” These were ordinary proceedings, whose sentence has not yet been published.

The judge was interested in emphasizing that Justice did not exaggerate the severity of the sentences and that his colleagues acted following the law

From the massive criminal show trials of 1959, at the time of the Revolution – not infrequently resulting in capital punishment – to the famous case of Arnaldo Ochoa in 1989, the practice of the exemplary trial has not lost its validity in Cuba. As Mestre admits, the target of this kind of proceeding is clear: the offender and the entire population as well. That is why many international organizations and Cuban activists, such as Dagoberto Valdés, have harshly criticized the method.

“This is not exemplary because it is not educational, because instead of educating so that the courts exercise their function, they miseducate by using television and networks to take justice into their own hands,” explains Valdés, the founder of the Centro Convivencia, who – contrary to Mestre’s argument – claims that it is not legal, since it goes against human dignity, which, in theory, is guaranteed by the Constitution. “Can there be a decree, a discrete disposition of some entity that can publicly and repeatedly contradict the Law of Laws?”

Although the cattle situation has recently fallen into this category, it is in the opposition to the Government – and the crimes, such as contempt or attempt, attributed to it – where the exemplary trial has enjoyed stellar moments on Cuban Television. Programs such as Hacemos Cuba (We Make Cuba), led by the regime’s spokesman Humberto López, are presented as the media channel of Justice.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the Government also held more than a few exemplary trials. According to the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, in June 2020 the police carried out “at least 67 arbitrary arrests,” mainly in the provinces of Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Villa Clara, and 74 “repressive actions of other types,” in particular, harassment through police subpoenas.

These arrests were followed by a “wave of exemplary trials” to “intimidate the population affected by the country’s poor economic situation.” “Several of these trials have been broadcast by the official media so that citizens can see how ruthless the system can be,” the Spain-based organization denounced at the time.

Translated by LAR

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“All persons maintaining their residency in the country since 2013, although they also live abroad, are favored by this law and do not lose any property rights”

This meeting, aimed at explaining the regulations expected to be implemented in 2025 after their approval next July – during the National Assembly of People’s Power session- also addressed an issue that has caused heated reactions in recent days: the deprivation of Cuban nationality. The law grants the President of the Republic and the Minister of the Interior the authority in matters of citizenship, making them competent to resolve the administrative cases regarding its acquisition, loss, deprivation, renunciation and recovery.

That attribution had generated among public opinion the perception that both are empowered to arbitrarily withdraw citizenship status, something that, on paper, is not the case. Both are ultimately responsible for a case initiated by the Prosecutor’s Office which, at least in theory, must comply with the law.

However, the authorities retain power in extremis where arbitrariness is more likely to occur since it is expected that “the requirements and formalities in the processing of the case” can be skipped if it is necessary to withdraw citizenship from those who try to cause “serious damage to the country concerning national security, jeopardize the stability of the State, international relations or the general health of the population.”

It is “extraordinarily exceptional,” the officer stressed, “and we have only applied it exceptionally to the invaders of Girón,” he said to downplay the importance. In general terms, for the deprivation of citizenship, the causes are “to enlist in any type of armed organization aimed at undermining the territorial integrity of the Cuban State, its citizens and other persons residing in the country, or from abroad to carry out acts contrary to the high political, economic and social interests of the Republic of Cuba.”

“The Law specifies that it is to enlist in any type of armed organization with the aim of undermining the territorial integrity of the Cuban State”

That cause does not apply to Cubans fighting in Russia against Ukraine, the official said when asked by a correspondent of France Presse. “The Law specifies that it is to enlist in any type of armed organization aimed at undermining the territorial integrity of the Cuban State,” he explained, making it clear that, even in the case of those who are considered mercenaries according to Cuban legislation, fighting on the Russian side does not affect national interests.

The Associated Press also questioned the officer about the possible arbitrariness that can be committed by taking advantage of legal loopholes and other subterfuges. “The regulations will be consistent with what the Law establishes. There is no cunning, “he said.

The Citizenship Law leaves the thorny issue of statelessness in the air since the draft is clear when it comes to specifying that Cuban nationality cannot be renounced if it is not accredited to have another one (article 46) and Méndez elaborated on this. “We do not accept cases of stateless persons. No one can renounce Cuban citizenship if they don’t have another one, “he said.

However, this specification does not appear when dealing with cases of loss or deprivation of Cuban citizenship. The first one occurs in the event of fraudulent acquisition or non-ratification under Article 25 (you must go to a consulate within three years of leaving the country or a similar period from the last ratification to express the will to maintain it). In no case is it mentioned that having another citizenship is required to avoid its loss.

As for deprivation, the question seems even clearer. Article 55.2 indicates that the case to remove citizenship only ends when the causes are verified “in an undoubted way, the person in question has another citizenship or does not effectively reside in Cuba, and the ordinance is issued.” This makes it clear that the mere fact of being in a foreign country, with or without residency abroad is enough, without it being required to have another nationality.

This makes it clear that the mere fact of being in a foreign country, with or without residency abroad is enough, without it being required to have another nationality

All this contravenes the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, to which 64 countries adhere – neither Cuba nor the United States do -in order to prohibit the stripping of nationality, due to the lack of protection not having a nationality implies. In 2020, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) issued new guidelines to renew this and other international agreements of its kind and reminded countries that there must be “very limited exceptions to this rule, even when nationality has been acquired through misrepresentation or fraud”.

Another issue that worries part of the population, as seen in the press conference, is the possibility of entering the country with a foreign passport while being Cuban. “To enter and leave the country, a Cuban passport is required, that is not negotiable. It is a constitutional and sovereign decision, “said Méndez, who added that in Cuba “all acts carried out with another citizenship to have effect in our country are null and void. ”

Therefore, those who acquired another citizenship – the United States and Spain being the most frequent among those who have dual nationality – must keep their passport in order and enter with it unless they have processed the renunciation of Cuban citizenship.

The changes in the Migration law will affect, the authorities estimate, 1.3 million Cubans, although the set of regulations (which includes five laws, those cited and two more that are not yet known) impact all of society, including foreigners. “Migration rules are incorporated to respond to the challenges of determining the residency of Cubans in Cuba and overseas, and in turn the exercise of rights related to the availability of the national territory’s heritage,” Méndez said.

Translated by LAR

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The five men were arrested by the authorities and transferred to the criminal investigation body, where they were handed precautionary measures without legal protection

According to the sentence, which discredits the protests, the five accused “planned to go out into the streets carrying posters with anti-constitutional, counter-revolutionary content in their hands, aimed to promote hatred and rejection among the population against the socialist government system embodied and approved in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba.”

The following day, the five men were arrested by the authorities and transferred to the criminal investigation body, where they were handed precautionary measures without legal protection and were subjected to interrogations without lawyer representation, according to PD.

The crime for which they were sentenced is the same in all five cases: propaganda against the constitutional order. Cepero Garcia, 59, got 5 years in prison.

Guía Piloto was sentenced to seven years. He had previously served five years in jail starting in 2016, for public disorder and contempt. In 2019, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted him precautionary measures* due to serious violations of his human rights in prison; that same year, Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience.

This case illustrates the complex relationship between the right to protest and restrictions imposed in authoritarian regimes

Meanwhile, Pérez Rivas got a five-year sentence. He was also arrested and imprisoned in 2016 along with Guía Piloto, although in his case, he was sentenced to six years. He was also granted precautionary measures by the IACHR.

Lastly, Romero Piloto, Josiel’s uncle, was punished with seven years behind bars, and Cruz Suescum received a sentence of five years of correctional work without internment.

“This case illustrates the complex relationship between the right to protest and the restrictions imposed in authoritarian regimes,” said the organization, which stressed that these acts of freedom of expression “should be protected and not criminalized.”

*Translator’s note: Source: A precautionary measure is a protection mechanism of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), through which it requests a State to protect one or more persons who are in a serious and urgent situation from suffering irreparable harm.

Translated by LAR

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He also has a disorder in his middle ear and a skull fracture caused by a machete attack he suffered in his youth

In 2023, the prison authorities sent González to the medical post to receive treatment for his insomnia, a follow-up by neurology and psychiatry, and an adequate diet and the necessary medications. These are conditions almost impossible to meet on the Island.

However, three days ago, the Artemisa Court again denied him out-of-prison leave, arguing that his health deterioration is due to the lack of medicines and not to the conditions of the prison. In addition, it considered he could recover in his cell while serving his sentence since his pathologies do not justify the granting of a leave, they alleged.

Cubalex reported that Gonzalez has not been seen by a neurologist for more than a year, that a psychiatrist has not seen him for over six months and that a psychologist has never seen him. They have also denied him a proper diet, so he has lost 14 kilograms (31 pounds).

Cubalex denounced Gonzalez has not been seen by a neurologist for more than a year

They also do not give him the medicines he needs regularly, such as amitriptyline, clonazepam, and carbamazepine. Even though he has been prescribed zolpidem for life, it has never been administered in prison.

Finally, after the struggle that the family of the man from Artemisa – one of the 1,580 protesters arrested for having participated in 11J – has waged so that he can have acceptable conditions, less than a month ago the judicial authorities granted González Fernández a transfer to a less severe regime from the prison of Guanajay to a correctional facility with internment near Taco Taco prison, in Pinar del Río.

Translated by LAR
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“The evident intention with this case is to involve me in a new ordinary process because all this comes out as an ordinary criminal offence, not a political crime. “

The events were precipitated when López requested the arrest warrant or, at least, the reason for an arrest, and the agent refused. Thus, the situation ended when the official executed “a martial arts technique” by pushing her legs. This destabilized the 59-year-old professor, who fell on her back and hit her head. “I did not lose consciousness, but I was very disoriented because it was a strong blow,” she recalls. The teacher recalls a distortion in her senses that made her fear brain damage, so she refused to get up when the officer ordered her to.

At that moment two officers appeared in another patrol car and dragged her to a car while her friend took off her glasses to avoid further damage. However, that caused her, coupled with the confusion of the moment, not to see well and instinctively to cling to something that turned out to be an epaulet from the police uniform. “It looks like I ripped it off or, at the very least, loosened it, I didn’t keep it in my hand,” she explains. The accusation of assault that now weighs on her is based on that event.

López Hernández goes over other violent moments, including when they grabbed her hair and jerked her head. This caused severe pain in her neck, already damaged due to age and poor posture typical of her profession. As a result, the medical examination she underwent on Friday showed post-traumatic labyrinthitis – an inflammation of an area of the inner ear that regulates balance and that should improve in about three months. In addition, she mentions how the agent climbed on top of Jenny Pantoja, squeezing her chest tightly while she was screaming she could not breathe.

“I grabbed some of her hair, but I didn’t have the strength to pull it, because my head was twisted forward. Then Jenny also somehow grabs the officer to defend herself, that’s all we did: instinctively try to save ourselves, “she confirms. Due to these events, Pantoja will also be accused of assault.

As a result of this, a post-traumatic labyrinthitis was found in the medical examination she underwent this Friday

Another violent moment was still to come. When the vehicle was already heading to the station, the professor decided to lie down in the car to calm her discomfort and rested her feet on the door. “When she saw that I did that, she stopped the car, said to the other officer: ‘You drive.‘ She got in the back with me, and took out a pair of handcuffs,” she describes. The agent, who squeezed her handcuffs considerably and increased her pain, told her she would go like this to the station: “So you can learn.”

Upon her arrival, the agent was checked by a doctor for the”aggression” charge on which they will support the case that, according to the then detainee, did not conveniently occur in front of the cameras to prevent everything from being filmed and to be able to make “a false accusation.” The professor recalls that in June 2023, when she was arrested and accused of disobedience, the events occurred in a public place, with witnesses, which forced the political police to withdraw the charge of assault, but this time they did it better, she observes.

López Hernández praises her friend Jenny Pantoja, who never wanted to leave her alone. “She was a great person, very good friend and very brave, and she stayed. Now, although we are both co-accused, my statements help her and her statements help me, ”she adds. Both will be represented by the same lawyer, who was present at the interrogations of the two activists.

“Be honest, just admit that Cuba is being governed as a state of exception, outside the Constitution

“We were attacked savagely, in a sadistic way, without any justification. Simply put, what they want is for us not to exercise our rights, “she adds. López Hernández is proud of having said two things in front of State Security’s cameras that set her stand. Firstly, she regretted that the same camera had not been used to film her arrest; secondly: “Be honest, you just have to admit Cuba is being governed as a state of exception, outside the Constitution.”

The intellectual adds that she now has an order of “house confinement” that prevents her from moving to Havana. “Well, that does not matter. In Matanzas, the Parque de la Libertad is still in the same place and they won’t be able to move it from there,” she warns.

The professor announced the posting of the video apologizing for her time defending the regime. “What you will hear is very serious, they are things that years ago I myself would not have believed. My apologies to all those who have suffered something like this and were not properly accompanied.”

Her statements close with a call for harmony and dialogue, despite the brutality with which she is treated. “What has happened neither discourages me nor frightens me nor will it make me an entrenched person, a person who does not want dialogue. I do want to continue the dialogue. I want the way out for Cuba to be peaceful, it is the Cuban Government that does not want it. But I’m not going to get tired of demanding it. ”

Translated by LAR

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comunismo”(Down with Communism), “Abajo los Castro”(Down with the Castros) and “Viva el 27 de Enero”(Long Live January 27) on the train station walls in the town of Entronque de Herradura. In Kilo 5 y Medio prison, he also faces constant threats of being transferred to a punishment cell for denouncing the living conditions inside the prison.

Cuban musician and activist Maykel Castillo, known as Osorbo, is serving his sentence in the same prison. The Venezuelan Casla Institute, which monitors the state of democracy in Latin America, requested proof of life for him last Friday.

Through social media, its executive director, lawyer Tamara Suju, warned that the artist, a member of the San Isidro Movement, denounced that “they are trying to kill him in prison,” that “he is being punished and the dictatorship has him incommunicado.” On April 18, the rapper was assaulted by four ordinary inmates in complicity with the prison authorities.

The Observatory for Cultural Rights denounced last month physical and psychological aggressions against Osorbo, who receives “no or defective medical care” in the face of the multiple ailments he has presented. Likewise, they protested against the concealment of the medical records from his family. The rapper is confined to solitary confinement and visits have been cancelled as a punishment for sending messages or repeatedly refusing to be transferred to another prison. In addition, they accused him of planning “an uprising” inside the prison, so they even installed a security camera to monitor him.

The rapper is confined to solitary confinement and visits have been suspended as a punishment for sending messages or recurrently refusing to be transferred to another prison

Osorbo, one of the authors and performers of the song Patria y Vida, a winner of two Latin Grammys, was arrested two months before the historic protests of 11 July 2021 — known as ’11J’ — and sentenced to nine years in prison. He was accused of “attack,” “public disorder” and “prisoners or detainees’ escape,” although he was held in prison for a whole year without trial, until May 2022.

The musician was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International in August 2021 and earned the Freedom Award from Freedom House in May 2022.

Translated by LAR

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

to board your flight,” says the document that De Céspedes showed and where the logo of the Colombian airline Avianca can be seen.

“These people have punished me to life imprisonment on this island prison”

“The crying is not because of the refusal, the crying is because of the decision I have had to make. Everyone who knows me knows that my homeland is above everything, above my feelings. And these people [the Cuban regime] have punished me to live in prison for life on this island prison,” he said.

In April 2021, he was detained for several days after making a pilgrimage to the Nuestra Señora de la Merced church in Camagüey. De Céspedes was released with a precautionary measure of house arrest and a fine of 2,000 pesos for not wearing a mask.

The Camagüey activist arrived at the church on Good Friday carrying a huge cross that said 62 years of dictatorship, with his torso shirtless and painted with a Cuban flag. He was detained by uniformed officers when leaving the temple.

A few months earlier, the police also arrested him in the middle of a crowd when he was handing out leaflets in the historic center of the city of Camagüey printed with texts by José Martí. On that occasion, he managed to hand out dozens of flyers to passersby and sang the national anthem. He also shouted several times: “Viva Cuba libre”(Long live free Cuba).

This is not the first time Managua has denied Cuban activists entry. Before De Céspedes, journalists Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho and Esteban Rodriguez, members of the San Isidro Movement, and doctor Alexander Figueredo, for example, were prevented from entering.

Translated by LAR

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.