Nieto leaves behind an older daughter who could not say goodbye to her, since the authorities denied her last scheduled visit on Friday, August 8.
14ymedio, Havana, 12 August 2025 — The political prisoner Aymará Nieto Muñoz has been forced to leave Cuba and since Monday she has been with part of her family -two small girls and her husband- in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. In Cuba, she leaves an older daughter who could not say goodbye to her, since the authorities denied her the last visit planned for Friday, August 8.
According to sources close to the situation, who have collaborated for her establishment in the Dominican Republic, she was taken directly from the prison to the airport, and the phones of her relatives were tapped, without allowing calls or messages. “This has no other name than exile,” warned activist Maria Regla Castro, who says Nieto Muñoz was taken in by a family at her destination.
“I was imprisoned until the last moment I was at the airport. They were the ones who took me. There they never let me go home, knowing that I had the papers they did not want to give me a pass,” confirmed Nieto herself in an interview with Rosa María Payá, promoter of Cuba Decide and member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Right there, the Lady in White explained that her departure took place “under conditions of threat from the State Security Department: she was either a prisoner or leaving the country.”
“I was imprisoned until the last moment I was at the airport. They were the ones who sent me away.”
Aymara Nieto Muñoz, member of the Ladies in White and wife of former political prisoner Ismael Boris Reñí, was serving her second consecutive sentence at the Bella Delicia Forced Labor Prison in Havana, where she had been since this May. Her first conviction came in 2018, when she was sentenced to four years for offenses of assault and property damage, but while serving a sentence at the El Guatao women’s prison, she was prosecuted for allegedly leading a prison riot.
At that time she received a sentence of five years and four months, and from this April she could apply for a change of measure to a regime of lesser severity. However, the Provincial Court had not yet taken a decision in this regard. Prisoner Defenders had repeatedly complained that the regime made her freedom conditional on exile. “Aymara Nieto has spent a total of eight years in prison for reasons related to her human rights activism,” the organization reported.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.