The names of those released by the Government from a group of 553 are gradually coming to light

14ymedio, Havana, 15 January 2025 — Little by little, without any official information and mainly through social media, the names of prisoners released in Cuba as part of the regime’s agreement with the Vatican that has allowed the United States to lift some of the sanctions against the island are coming to light, including its inclusion on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism , from which it was removed on Tuesday. There are 553 in total, but there are no further details about them , nor for what crimes they were convicted, nor if they are actually political prisoners.
This Wednesday, the vice president of the Supreme People’s Court, Maricela Rosa Rabelo, declared on state television that the “benefits of early release” have been given to those prosecuted for “dissimilar” crimes. She listed: “Property crimes such as theft, robbery with force. There are threats, there are injuries, there are disorders. There are also some people who were sanctioned for sedition, but sedition is not a political crime.”
The crime of sedition, for example, was the one charged to the protesters of 11 July 2021 (11J) who received the highest sentences, up to 20 years in prison (although in some cases it was later reduced).
Here are the released prisoners known so far.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) published a list of the first 14 prisoners released on Wednesday, “without the total magnitude of the operation being known yet,” the Madrid-based organization said. In its statement, the OCDH said that the agreement to release 553 prisoners from prison “apparently also benefits common criminals,” and stressed that the number of those sentenced for political reasons exceeds one thousand.
Some of the released prisoners have “serious health problems that have been ignored for years by the authorities,” the NGO denounces, as is the case of Reyna Yacnara Barreto Batista, released on “extra-penal leave” by the Supreme Court, with a sentence “that admits her psychiatric illness, which was ignored until Havana reached an agreement with the Vatican.”
To the list of those mentioned by this newspaper Reyna Yacnara Barreto Batista, Lisdani Rodríguez Isaac, Mailene Noguera Santiesteban, Yessica Coimbra Noriega and Rowland Castillo Castro, the OCDH adds: Dariel Cruz García , Donaida Pérez Paseiro , Liván Hernández Sosa , Katia Beirut Rodríguez , José Miguel Gómez Mondeja , Jorge Gabriel Arruebarruena León , Magdiel Rodríguez García , Rogelio Lázaro Domínguez Pérez and César Adrián Delgado Correa.
Rowland Castillo Castro. 17 years old at the time of his arrest, on July 16, 2021, for participating in the ’11J’ demonstrations in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre, specifically on the corner of Toyo, which gave rise to one of the most emblematic images of that day, the overturned police patrol car and a young man raising the Cuban flag. Tried in February 2022, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but ultimately served 5 years of correctional labor with internment. Both his father, Ángel Rolando Castillo Sánchez, and his mother, Yudinela Castro Pérez, have been harassed and persecuted by State Security for defending their son’s innocence and freedom.
Mailene Noguera Santiesteban and Yessica Coimbra Noriega: delegates of the Movement of Opponents for a New Republic (MONR) and the Democracy Movement (MD), as well as promoters of Cuba Decide, both mothers. Noguera Santiesteban, from Surgidero de Batabanó, Mayabeque. She was forcibly removed from her home on July 17, 2021, and was also subjected to enforced disappearance. She was serving a 6-year sentence in El Guatao, of which she had already served almost 4 years. Cohimbra Noriega was serving a 5-year prison sentence for the crimes of public disorder and two for contempt.
Lisdani Rodríguez Isaac and her sister Lisdiany Rodríguez Isaac: From Placetas, Villa Clara. Arrested on July 18, 2021 for participating in 11J. They were placed in preventive detention and accused of public disorder, contempt, instigation to commit crimes, attack and spreading epidemics. Both were sentenced to 8 years in prison. Lisdiany Rodríguez Isaac gave birth a few months ago in prison and will be released this Thursday.
Reyna Barreto Batista: Arrested at her home in Camagüey by 15 police officers on July 18, 2021, a week after participating in the massive 11J protest in her city. During the demonstration, she was attacked by three men. She was forcibly disappeared. With symptoms of Covid and under investigation, she spent 14 days in isolation. She was later released but continued to be harassed at home, as Cubalex reported at the time. At trial, she was sentenced to 4 years of correctional labor with confinement for the crime of attack and public disorder, which she was serving at the Granja 5 center.
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