In February 2023, five activists took to the streets in Havana and displayed banners against the “failed state”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 June 2024 — Five opposition activists – William Cepero García, Josiel Guía Piloto, Lázaro Romero Piloto, Alain Yosvani Cruz Suescum and Jesús Alfredo Pérez Rivas – were sentenced on June 20 by the Provincial Court of Havana to five to seven years in prison for the crime of propaganda against the constitutional order, for protesting last year against the Government, Prisoners Defenders (PD) reported Thursday.
According to the Madrid-based NGO, on February 13, 2023, the five activists, who have been members of different organizations for years, met in the municipality of Old Havana at the home of Josiel Guía Piloto, who is a member of the Republican Party of Cuba (not legally recognized). At that time, Guía Piloto asked his uncle, Lázaro Romero Piloto, to sew his lips together in protest.
Afterwards, the five men made posters with phrases such as “Cuba failed state,” “Díaz-Canel assassin” and “Homeland and life.” They took to the streets and began shouting “down with the dictatorship,” while waving the banners, which was also recorded, posted and shared on social media.
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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