Twenty individuals were initially implicated in the case, but half managed to leave the Island.
14ymedio / EFE, Panama City, March 5, 2026 – The Government of Panama reported this Thursday that it plans to carry out a consular visit on Friday to the ten Panamanians arrested in Cuba accused of propaganda against the Government of the Island, a crime punishable by up to eight years in prison.
“We have guaranteed consular assistance and have requested to see the Panamanians. This morning I spoke with Ambassador Edwin Pitty and he informed me that tomorrow he will see the Panamanians,” said Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha during the weekly press conference of Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino.
Martínez-Acha emphasized that since learning of the arrest, Ambassador Pitty went to the Cuban authorities to request details of what had happened. They provided him with “the information that was known—that ten Panamanians had painted slogans against the Cuban regime,” although he clarified that the total number of nationals initially involved “was 20, (but) 10 were able to leave the country earlier.”
The graffiti was dated the day it was carried out, February 28, and contained phrases such as “Down with tyranny.”
The foreign minister also stated that the subsequent conversation he had with his Cuban counterpart took place “in very friendly terms,” and that he “gave guarantees that all the Panamanians are being treated well, that they will have access to all legal assistance within the Republic of Cuba, and that if the country wishes they could have external advisers, as long as and when they approve it.”
Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior reported last Monday the arrest of the ten Panamanians accused of allegedly carrying out graffiti critical of the Government and the Island’s political system in Havana.
According to the accusation, the graffiti was dated the day it was made, February 28, and included phrases such as “Down with tyranny,” “Communism: enemy of the community,” and “We trust Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Mike Hammer,” referring respectively to the President of the United States, his Secretary of State, and his ambassador to the Island.
The Ministry of the Interior stated that those arrested were recruited in Panama, where they all reside, to “prepare signs with subversive content contrary to the constitutional order,” and that they were going to be paid between $1,000 and $1,500 each upon returning to their country.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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