“It’s not the way one would want to be free, but the prisoner and their family are the ones who decide,” says Berta Soler
14ymedio / EFE, Havana, May 16, 2026 – The leader of the Cuban opposition group Ladies in White, Berta Soler, lamented this Friday that political prisoner Sissi Abascal, 28, one of the youngest members of her group, had to leave the country in order to regain her freedom.
“Two brave Ladies in White, Sissi Abascal Zamora and her mother, Annia Zamora, arrived in exile; the choice was to leave Cuba or remain imprisoned,” Soler wrote on social media following the arrival of both dissidents in the U.S. city of Miami.
Soler considered that “it’s not the way one would want to be free, but the prisoner and their family are the ones who decide.”
“With their example, courage, and love for their homeland, they became leaders in this place”
She also highlighted that “Sissi and her mother Annia were two women worthy of respect” in the town of Carlos Rojas in the province of Matanzas, and affirmed that “with their example, courage, and love for their homeland, they became leaders in this place.”
Soler recalled that Abascal is one of the youngest women in the Ladies in White movement, which she joined “at only 16 years old.”
The independent group Justice 11J, which has been responsible for documenting arrests, judicial proceedings, and human rights violations on the Island, celebrated on social media that “Sissi is out of prison.”
But it also demanded that “all people imprisoned for political reasons be released, without exile being imposed on them as a condition.”
Prisoners Defenders, based in Madrid, recorded 1,260 political prisoners in Cuba
Likewise, the NGO Cubalex emphasized that Sissi Abascal “is being forced to leave Cuba, with her freedom conditioned on exile” and that “she is leaving the country alongside her mother Annia Zamora.”
The organization added that in 2025 Cuban authorities denied Abascal the benefit of being transferred to a minimum-security regime, as well as parole.
“Today, they prefer to grant her the benefit of parole — at the discretion of the authorities — in order to exile her, rather than place her in a less severe regime within Cuba,” Cubalex stated.
Abascal was sentenced to six years in prison for the crimes of “public disorder,” “contempt,” and “assault” for her participation in the anti-government protests of July 11, 2021, the largest in decades in Cuba.
Abascal’s release coincided with the publication of the latest report by the Madrid-based NGO Prisoners Defenders, which recorded 1,260 political prisoners in Cuba.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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