Media Outlets Advocate for All Cuban Political Prisoners
A group of independent Cuban media join to demand their release
Who are the Cubans released from prison thus far in January 2025, and under what conditions are they leaving prison?
HAVANA TIMES – A coalition of independent media in Cuba has launched the #TODOS platform, a product based on data journalism tools that highlights the release of political prisoners starting in January 2025.
This website complements and amplifies the monitoring conducted by the participating media outlets, activists, and civil society organizations such as the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, Cuban Prisoners Defenders, Justicia11J, and Cubalex.
Reports of individuals being released from prison are recorded in a database that includes consolidated information from the follow-up efforts of civil society organizations that have been methodically monitoring this process for years. The number of political prisoners, based on cross-referencing records from different civil society organizations, currently stands at 1,396 individuals. This list is considered an underreporting, as there may be individuals in detention who have not publicly reported their situation. The organizations are continuously working on updating this data.
The resulting report allows for statistical analysis that reveals trends and holds the official narrative about the releases accountable.
The first conclusion that becomes clear is that the 553 people whom the Cuban regime assured its foreign interlocutors it would “free” were not all processed for political reasons. It was suspected that this would be the case when the official statement referred to the beneficiaries of the measure as “prisoners for various reasons,” but this independent record will show to what extent individuals detained for political reasons are included, both before, during, and after the social unrest of July 11, 2021.
The data also demonstrates that this is not a “release,” but rather a process of leaving prison under legal figures such as “conditional release” and “extrapenal leave,” which require individuals to maintain what the authorities consider “good behavior” as a guarantee to avoid returning to detention centers.
It is evident that the vast majority of those released had served more than half of their sentence, thus qualifying them for benefits that the official propaganda now presents as an exceptional humanitarian act. There is also a noticeable frequency of using crimes such as contempt, disobedience, and sedition to politically target citizens who participated in public protests or actively oppose the Communist Party.
#TODOS takes its name from the way hundreds of Cuban citizens demand on social media that all politically processed individuals be released, not just a small group. Citizen support is also crucial to identify released individuals who may not appear in the records, which can be done through a form on the website.
The initiative, initially composed of 14ymedio, Alas Tensas, Árbol Invertido, CiberCuba, El Estornudo, El Toque, Havana Times, La Hora de Cuba, Periodismo de Barrio, and Rialta, extends its invitation to other media outlets and projects that wish to join and contribute to the expansion of this product, which will remain relevant as long as there is a person imprisoned in Cuba for their political ideas and actions.
*First Published in Spanish by the #TODOS coalition of independent Cuban media.
I am not sure how I feel about Cuba’s so-called “independent” media. Some of these organizations are just grifters. They exist primarily to receive foreign money. Others are imposters set up by the Castro dictatorship to infiltrate the independent media spaces. The legitimate media among them don’t seem to have much influence outside of Cuba and far less inside of the island. Can anyone name a single accomplishment any of these media can take credit for? I realize that Cuba has been called the most restrictive country for media in the western hemisphere. If anyone has better information, I am all ears.