Cuba: 421 July 11, 2021, Protesters Still Imprisoned
The arrests continue of Cubans who dare to protest. In June, the regime arrested eight people, several for protesting blackouts in Guanabacoa.
HAVANA TIMES – On the eve of the fourth anniversary of the massive July 11, 2021 protests, Prisoners Defenders (PD) has published a report denouncing that of the 1,158 political prisoners currently serving sentences on the island, 65% (752) were detained during those demonstrations. Since then, the regime has continued to imprison its opponents with impunity—at a rate of 10 new arrests per month over the past year, although some have been released—including eight new detainees in June, at least half of them during the June 29 protests in Guanabacoa.
The platform’s list includes only Deyanira López, Dónovan López, Hiromi Moliner, and Sunamis Quintero García, who took part in the protest against blackouts, a neighborhood demonstration that ended in a fire, about ten arrests, and a growing atmosphere of tension.
“The situation regarding July 11, 2021 has not only failed to improve: it has substantially worsened. Nonetheless, the massive and brutal repression that occurred remains the only deterrent to further mass demonstrations, which now happen sporadically across the country, although with far smaller crowds due to the terror instilled in the population on 11J and the current situation of those imprisoned in Cuba,” says PD.
The platform, in collaboration with Justicia Consortium and the Center for a Free Cuba, has produced a document summarizing updated data on the repression unleashed by authorities during the 11J protests. Since then, nearly 2,000 protesters have faced criminal prosecution, 421 of whom are still in Cuban prisons—another 331 are serving non-custodial sentences—and of these, 202 were sentenced to between 10 and 30 years in prison.
The organization also noted that of the 73 women arrested during the protests, 18 remain behind bars. It highlighted the cases of Ladies in White members Sissi Abascal and Sayli Navarro, who are serving their sentences at the La Bellotex prison in Matanzas; as well as María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez, sentenced to 7 years at El Guatao prison in Havana, and Lizandra Góngora Espinosa, sentenced to 14 years in Los Colonos Forced Labor Prison on Isla de la Juventud, “isolated and unable to receive visits from her family and her five children (four of whom are still minors).”
Prison Defenders also denounced the torture of 11J prisoners, including the prison authorities’ refusal to provide medical care. Of the July 2021 protesters still imprisoned, 325 suffer from “serious medical conditions,” and 34 have mental health issues “incompatible with incarceration.”
“A still massive number of political prisoners are gravely ill and should be granted conditional release, which the Cuban regime continuously and arbitrarily denies,” the platform stated. It cited the case of Alexander Díaz Rodríguez, sentenced to 5 years in Pinar del Río and suffering from “terminal throat cancer, as well as hepatitis B, anemia, and malnutrition.”
In a similar condition is Amalio Álvarez González, serving a 15-year sentence and suffering from “psychiatric disorders, cognitive disabilities, and vision loss,” who has attempted suicide on four occasions.
Just days ago, on July 7, political prisoner Yan Carlos González González died following a hunger strike lasting over 40 days. He had been incarcerated for over a year at La Pendiente prison in Santa Clara. Accused of setting fire to a sugarcane field, the 44-year-old faced a 20-year sentence sought by the prosecution. At the time of his death, González was hospitalized at Arnaldo Milián Provincial Hospital in Santa Clara, in critical condition.
PD also reported that the regime revoked the conditional release granted to four of the 219 11J prisoners who had been freed following negotiations with the Vatican this past January: José Daniel Ferrer, Jaime Alcide Firdó, Félix Navarro Rodríguez, and Donaida Pérez Paseiro. It added that 91% of the political prisoners included in the agreement “were already legally entitled to open-regime custody, parole, or immediate release—even over a year ago.”
The situation of the prisoners is not the only concern for civil society organizations. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights published a report this month tallying the “repressive actions” carried out by State Security in June. According to the report, 253 such incidents were documented, including 61 arbitrary arrests.
“Among the main violations are the surveillance of activists’ homes, abuses against political prisoners, threats, and harassment,” the report states, adding that women “are the most affected by the repression.”