The Camagüey opposition leader “is in the worst of misery,” his friends claim.
14ymedio, Havana, 19 August 2025 — Virgilio Mantilla Arango, founding leader of Camagüeyan Unity for Human Rights, was released from prison this Sunday, according to his family and friends on social media, including activist and Lady in White Leticia Ramos Herrería, who requested basic assistance for the opposition leader.
“I’ve never asked for anything for myself, but rather for brothers in struggle. Virgilio Mantilla Arango has just been released and is in the worst of misery. He doesn’t even have a sheet to sleep on, or a phone, or anything. I’m calling on all my friends and brothers and sisters in exile to help him with whatever they can,” she pleaded on her Facebook account late Sunday, after speaking with him.
Mantilla Arango was released after serving his prison sentence. The opposition figure was convicted in 2021 following the historic Island-wide anti-government protests of 11 July (’11J’), although he had already served time in prison and subsequently had multiple convictions against him.
In 2020, Mantilla Arango expressed his solidarity with the members of the San Isidro Movement who had taken up quarters in November to demand freedom and democracy and were detained by authorities, who accused them of violating health regulations to contain COVID-19. Accused of “hoarding food,” the opposition leader was sentenced to seven months in prison in the Kilo-7 prison in Camagüey. On July 4, after serving his sentence, he was released, but his release lasted just over a week.
On July 16, following the protests, Mantilla Arango was arrested again with other demonstrators and in September 2021 he was sentenced to three years and three months in prison. He would have completed his sentence in October 2024, but was given an additional 10 months after being charged with contempt for demanding better prison conditions with other inmates. The complaint also earned him several days in solitary confinement.
Last June, his sister Kenia Mompié Mantilla had to deny a rumor that had circulated about his being murdered in prison, although it turned out to be another unspecified inmate.
“Virgilio, always the same as yesterday, today, and always, reaffirms with forceful words that he has left prison greatly strengthened spiritually, and his spirit is very contagious and positive,” said activist Mary Lugo on social media after a conversation with Mantilla Arango on Sunday.
“This morning, the prison authorities informed him of his release, and he told the officers that if they didn’t want him, they shouldn’t let him go, because he wouldn’t stop fighting in freedom for the good of the people and protesting so many injustices, as he has just done in this conversation, where he asks that the horrible situation of the prisoners be denounced and the sadness of seeing his people suffer so much,” she added.
The Madrid-based Cuban Observatory of Human Rights reported on his release on Monday and denounced the opposition leader’s ordeal, who “has been imprisoned for more than four years in inhumane conditions, generating constant complaints of human rights violations.”
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