Protester Released in Cuba After Serving Abusive Sentence
HAVANA TIMES – Samuel Pupo Martínez, sentenced to three years in Agüica prison for demonstrating on July 11, 2021 in Cardenas, Matanzas, was released on Monday. Known for his photo of the protests, taken while mounted on an overturned vehicle, his sentence was reduced to two years, eight months and 21 days by a “report”.
“I will continue to fight for my Cuba to be really free, because I left the small prison and entered the big one. I don’t feel free,” Pupo, age 49, told Martí Noticias on Monday.
On July 11, in front of the headquarters of the Communist Party of Cárdenas, Pupo mounted an overturned car, shouted “Homeland and life! Down with communism!”, which the authorities did not forgive. Arrested and transported in a police van to La Bellotex prison, Pupo was missing for several days and suffered mistreatment at the hands of the police.
“I am free because I have fulfilled my sentence, which was for three years. I don’t owe them anything,” said the former political prisoner, after being released from prison this Monday.
In April 2022, almost a year after his confinement, the court of Matanzas conducted a three-day trial in which Pupo was charged with public disorder and contempt, and the Prosecutor’s Office requested a sentence of seven years. “His lawyer made a brilliant defense, but the prosecutor asked for the maximum penalty for each crime he had allegedly committed,” his wife told 14ymedio.
The sentence was pending for a month, and both Pupo and his wife felt hopeful because the lawyer had requested that the charge be reduced to a precautionary measure, explaining that “Pupo has scleroderma, a degenerative disease, which is not compatible with staying in a prison.” However, the court dismissed the request. The family then requested an appeal of cassation,* which was granted, and Pupo’s sentence was reduced to three years.
“I have many brothers who have had to suffer disproportionate sentences, which were unjustified, unjust,” he told Martí Noticias, referring to those prosecuted for demonstrating on 11J. “It was a warning for people to suck it up and stay silent. Since the Castro revolution triumphed, something like this had never happened, and I was proud to have been there.”
Despite the regime’s repression, Pupo feels hopeful about the new protests that happened on the Island after 11J: “People are going out to claim their rights. It’s time for the Cuban people to realize that their rights have been trampled on, that we have to defend them ourselves.”
During his time in prison, Pupo was with other 11J political prisoners, such as Félix Navarro, also a former prisoner of the Black Spring, who is completing his prison sentence in Agüica; and Francisco Rangel Manzano, sentenced to six years for demonstrating in the Matanzas municipality of Colón.
*Translator’s note: Courts of cassation are upper-level courts of “extraordinary” remedy that interpret the law rather than re-examining the facts. They can abrogate or annul a lower court decision.
Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba
I wish people in Cuba had the freedom to protest or run a business like we have in Canada
Different people can say Different things and disagree but we still get along
Sometimes in Canada the may do certain things like frozen bank accounts but we are still free to earn a good wage and support our families
The only way things in Cuba will turn around is with major changes that are not likely to happen
I can camp out for a month in Canada to protest disabled living in tents on the gov parliament and the worst I can get is some minor police action when compared to Cuba
Even as a tourist in Cuba the gov wants to know who I am seeing and for what reason. I do not know how to fix Cuba Many people have good ideas but they will not happen
It is too much safer for people from Canada to go to mexico or southern states for the winter.