Cuba: Prosecutor Seeks 9 Years for Pots & Pans Protesters
Among the accused is the writer and journalist Jose Gabriel Barrenechea
HAVANA TIMES – The Cuban Prosecutor’s Office is seeking up to nine years in prison for six Cubans for peacefully banging pots and pans — a cacerolazo — in protest of blackouts during a trial that began Wednesday in the Villa Clara provincial court.
The defendants, including Cuban intellectual and independent journalist José Gabriel Barrenechea, are accused of public disorder, according to the final conclusions of the Prosecutor’s Office’s brief, to which EFE has had access.
Five of the defendants have been in pretrial detention since a few days after the events in question occurred on 7 November 2024.
The trial began in the afternoon, with the defendants’ statements. Activists and family members denounced the arrest of longtime Cuban opposition figure Guillermo ‘Coco’ Fariñas as he was traveling to the courthouse to attend the hearing.
According to the prosecution’s brief , the defendants—with three cauldrons “that could not be seized”—led a cacerolazo in the town of Encrucijada (central Cuba), taking advantage of “the power outage caused by the country’s energy crisis.”
The action, with “incessant blasts” and “high decibels,” was accompanied by repeated shouts of “Turn on the power, we want power.” This, the Prosecutor’s Office argues, resulted in “disturbing the public peace” and “obstructing vehicle traffic on public roads.”
With this description, the Prosecutor’s Office is requesting nine years in prison for two of the defendants, six for Barrenechea, five for another, and four for a final suspect. For the sixth defendant, they are seeking five years of restricted liberty.
The six defendants are all men, originally from Encrucijada, and range in age from 26 to 53. None have a criminal record.
Barrenechea was arrested a few days after the protest. His request to be released pending trial was rejected, and he was only allowed to leave prison to attend his mother’s funeral (but not to visit her, as she was already seriously ill).
On June 25, the Prosecutor’s Office submitted a request to the Provincial Court of Villa Clara for a six-year prison sentence for the journalist, a contributor to this newspaper. The document details that Barrenechea’s “crime”—they initially sought to charge him with sedition—during the peaceful demonstrations after 48 hours without electricity in Encrucijada, was shouting “Turn on the power, we want the power,” in unison with other protesters, and urging “those present not to desist from their actions.”
The document adds that the journalist “shows total disaffection for the revolutionary process and its top leader.” It also notes that he is a citizen with no criminal record, but that he “associates with people of poor moral character and social conduct, and has no recognized employment relationship.”
For the past 10 months, Barrenechea has been imprisoned at La Pendiente Penitentiary in Santa Clara. The facility is “known for its extremely overcrowded conditions and for housing all types of prisoners,” according to the Foundation for Pan-American Democracy’s Complaints Center. His stay there has represented “a serious risk to his life,” the organization emphasized in a statement days after the journalist’s arrest.
While in prison, the journalist suffered the death of his mother, Zoila Esther Chávez, who depended on him, and was only allowed to attend her funeral for an hour and a half.
Amnesty International’s Cuba researcher, Johanna Cilano, addressed the trial on social media this Wednesday. “Protest is a right; no one should be imprisoned simply for exercising their human rights,” she asserted.
Cilano linked this case to two other recent trials in Cuba, such as the one following the Bayamo protests of March 2024, in which 15 people were sentenced to up to nine years in prison for protesting.
Translated by Translating Cuba.
1. If there are any honest military leaders, they need to take over the government and declare a rebuild from the ground up of Cuba.
2. In the short/immediate term the short term military govt should ask for short term aid from all countries, especially the United States: money for food and necessities; oil, oil and more oil; expertise and equipment to repair or maintain the power and water infrastructure;
3. A quick formulation of a long term plan for rebuilding Cuba, economically and politically — and fairly — with consultation from advisors from the United States, Singapore, Argentina and El Salvador’s.
Result:
Even the short term fixes will provide a significant changes to a country teetering on the edge of a cliff. In two years, the change will be dramatic with the economy bustling, building projects all over and more tourists than Cuba has ever seen.
In five years , Cuba will be one of prime vacation destinations in the world — which is utterly impossible to achieve by the current government and political system.
Moses, I think you already know this, and I shouldn’t have to remind you, but there is no longer any “Castro dictatorship” in Cuba. I’m sure you’ve heard of the new guy?? That’s the name you should use, instead of conjuring up the ghosts of dictatorships past simply by provoking sensationalism based on the Castro name.
Stephen, everyone SHOULD still continue to experience Cuba through stays at ALL of the various hotels across the island. The Cuban people need that hard currency infusion to support social programs, medical facilities, and infrastructure projects, to say the least. Contrary to popular belief, the Cuban government doesn’t horde that money earned from tourism for themselves… of late due to falling tourism numbers, they simply don’t have enough of it available to be able to adequately manage the governing of Cuba sufficiently.
NOW! This is not to say that I agree in any way shape or form with the extremely harsh and lengthy sentencing calls for these unfortunate Cubans who were simply banging pots and pans in legal protest in Cuba. At most, they were disturbing the peace, and that’s the only thing that could possibly be applied to their situations. But it’s Cuba, and I know Cuba well as I’ve been traveling to Cuba multiple times per year for decades – I’m also legally married to a Cuban woman who still lives there. We’ll see how this plays out – personally, I think it highlights the hypocrisy of the Cuban government… on one hand, they’ve stated that it’s legal to peacefully protest in Cuba, and on the other hand, they’re looking for any excuse to label incidents of peaceful protest as something else worthy of prison sentences akin to violent crime. I do agree with Moses though… many others need to join in with those peaceful protests across the island to overwhelm the government’s resistance. Unfortunately, many Cubans are fearful and/or too busy trying to survive the up to 22 hours per day blackouts while trying to find food to put on the table for their family’s to eat.
This kind of over-the-top punishment for civil disobedience is straight out of the authoritarian playbook. It can only be defeated by overwhelming the government with more protesters than there are police to arrest them and jail cells to imprison them. Unfortunately for Cuba, it seems unlikely that Cubans will offer any resistance to the Castro dictatorship in significant numbers. Anyone who saw how many people were in the streets in the recent protests in Nepal can confirm that, in sufficient numbers, civil disobedience can make a difference.
This is why people should not go and stay in gov hotels in Cuba where the $ goes the military based government. In many countries 2 or 3 days in jail a frozen bank account maybe a little tear gas but in Cuba it can cost person freedom maybe their life.