Luis Robles, the Cuban Youth with a Sign, Gets Five Years
The court said he had “a marked interest to create an environment to destabilize the social system”.
HAVANA TIMES – Activist Luis Robles, the “Young Man with the Sign”, was sentenced to five years in jail for peacefully protesting in the centrally-located San Rafael Street pedestrian zone in Havana holding a sign demanding an end to the repression and freedom for Cuban rapper Denis Solís.
According to the sentencing document, accessed by 14ymedio, during the trial it was “proven” that Robles “responded to a call” by Cuban influencer “Alexander Otaola for people to pronounce themselves” against Solís’s detention, and to “perform any act aimed at destabilizing the internal order, publicly protesting in the street against the Cuban economic and social system.”
The phrases “Freedom. No more repression. #free-Denis [Solís]”, visible on the sign Robles was carrying, showed he “opposed the decisions of the authorities” who determined Solís’s arrest, argued the Provincial Tribunal in Havana.
The sentence was dated March 28th, the day when authorities notified Robles, but the young man as well as his family members were only able to access the document three days later, his brother Landy Fernandez told this daily.
In the document, the judges state that the young man maintained a “marked interest in creating a destabilizing environment for the social system and domestic economic development,” arguing that “he began yelling phrases like those on his sign and others regarding the decisions made by the country’s leaders to resist the economic blockade to which Cuba has been subjected by the United States.”
Robles moved “from one side to the other to invite the people who were there to follow him and, in that way, create disorder.” Furthermore, they argue that “the events were manipulated by digital platforms serving the enemy” to “discredit the professional functioning of [Cuban] police authorities.”
During the trial which took place over three and a half months ago, the prosecution had requested the young man be sentenced to six years in prison for the crimes of resistance and enemy propaganda. On various occasions Robles was denied his request for a change in his pre-trial detention during which he remained in prison.
Robles was arrested on December 4, 2020, for protesting on the Boulevard San Rafael in Havana. He peacefully protested, holding a sign above his head demanding freedom, an end to repression, and the release of controversial rapper Denis Solís.
Three days prior to taking to the streets to peacefully protest, Robles recorded a video which was released much later where he spoke about his thinking, his desires and the reasons that led him to become a non-conformist.
“I wish with my heart for a change, a change in the system, a change in the country, because really communism has converted this country into an true hell where it is practically impossible to breathe, not only to breathe air, but also to breathe peace, breathe tranquility,” he declared in the video.
At another point, he said “freedom is the greatest thing one can have in life and ever since these bold-faced communists arrived, they have thwarted all kinds of freedoms, freedom of religion, freedom of a free ideology, freedom to elect whomever you want, not who they impose upon you.” And he continued: “They’ve taken our freedom of thought and they even want to dictate what we think.”
From jail at the beginning of March, the 29-year-old released a letter in which he reiterated his struggle and his goal, “Freedom for the people of Cuba.” In the missive, Robles returns to the reasons that led him to carry out the peaceful protest.
“I decided to break the silence because I got tired of seeing how my country is destroyed and the Government does nothing to fix it,” he explained, “because I believe the biggest enemy Cuba has is not abroad but sitting in the presidential seat.”
Thus, he insisted that his action was so that “fear and censorship would not continue governing Cuban society, so that expressing what you think and feel, anywhere, would not be a reason for going to jail. I want Cuba to be a country for Cubans, no matter their way of thinking, so that the streets of my country would be for everyone and not just for the communists.”
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I agree with Olgasintamales for her comment today and for certain comments she has made in the past. (Pardon me to assume “her”). This young man will get 5 years in prison. How long did Nelson Mandela spend in prison. Cubans should be lining up with their signs. There should be more Cubans in the streets with signs than there are prison cells to keep them. Maybe freedom in Cuba will cost an entire generation to lose their freedom and for some, maybe their lives. But ask a Ukrainian how much they are willing to sacrifice for their freedom.
Olvidala, Olga. I’m done wasting my time. How do you discuss politics with someone who thinks Hitler was a communist ?
Olga, are you saying that unjust sentences never happen in the US. For every injustice in Cuba, at least 5 have took place in the US throughout the history of the 2 countries.
What is more outrageous is how some people would defend this horrible dictatorship. I would love to see Dan, Curt, and the Nicks of this works that have excuses for the Cuban regime what they have to say about thus unjust sentence, I honestly would love to hear why they think they can enjoy of the freedom that the system they lives in it ( (Capitalism) guarantees but is ok for the Cuban dictatorship to send a peaceful protester to five years in jail.