To promote a peaceful transition to a Cuba that respects human rights
and political and economic freedoms
Father and daughter rights defenders sentenced to long prison terms. Mother of 11J protester detained by secret police for defending her child. Freedom House on Cuba in 2022 report.
Havana continues its crackdown against Cuban human rights defenders, Cubans who protested on July 11, 2021, and their families under the cover of international attention rightfully focused on Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Bad news for the Cuban dictatorship, the world is still watching and calling them out for their mistreatment of Cubans.
On February 28, 2022 Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for external affairs of the European Commission over social media urged Cuban authorities to "respect fundamental rights, including freedom of expression. Transparency and respect for due process should guide trials related to the July 11 protests. We are concerned about the harsh sentences imposed."
Unfortunately, Havana has not heeded the European Union's concerns.
Father and daughter sentenced to long prison terms in Cuba for inquiring about plight of prisoners.
On March 2, 2022 the Cuban dictatorship confirmed the prison sentences against two Cuban human rights defenders. Félix Navarro Rodríguez, ( age 68 ), condemned to 9 years in prison. His daughter, the Lady in White Sayli Navarro (age 35), was condemned to eight years in prison. Both are long time human rights defenders who have reported on systematic human rights violations in Cuba. Their crime: going to the police station to inquire about the plight of detained nonviolent protesters of the July 11 protests in Cuba.
Felix Navarro is a member of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) board of directors. He has been arbitrarily jailed since July 12, 2021. He is also highlighted in this petition as a prisoner of conscience in a precarious condition due both to his age and health.
Sayli was also detained on July 12th, but was released hours later, and has been staying with her mother, who is in poor health. She has also spoken out against her father's arbitrary imprisonment.
February 24, 2022, the same day Russia launched its total invasion of Ukraine, human rights defender Keilylli de la Mora was attacked by an unknown assailant who beat her and slashed her face. In the video above she describes what happened.
Maikel Puig Bergolla, in photo with his two children, sentenced to 20 years in prison for 11J protest.
Trials of 11J protesters continue with prison sentences of six, eight, and 20 years for yelling anti-government slogans in the street while banging pots and pans. Sentencing documents cited that the accused “began traveling through the center of the street,” to the area of the central park. They state that once there, “they joined hundreds of people,” and “in blatant disrespect to the President of the Republic” yelled slogans such as “Díaz-Canel singao [motherfucker]*” and “dickhead police”. In addition, they mention that Bergolla encouraged neighbors to join “the walk.” Maikel Puig Bergolla was sentenced to 20 years in prison, he is a father of two. Brothers Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo were sentenced to six and eight years in prison respectively for taking part in the 11J protests.
Brothers sentenced to six and eight years in prison respectively for taking part in the 11J protests
Family members of the 11J protesters who have spoken out are also being threatened. Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of 18-year-old political prisoner and July 11th (11J) protester condemned to 12 years in prison, Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro, was arrested and taken to Villa Marista, the barracks of State Security in Havana on February 24th. She has been outspoken in defense of her imprisoned son. Yudinela has been charged with contempt "desacato" and remains detained in Villa Marista. Yudinela Castro Pérez is a cancer patient who has undergone 14 operations, and her health is fragile.
Yudinela Castro Pérez, mother of 18-year-old political prisoner Rowland Jesús Castillo Castro
Showing solidarity or sympathy with the Ukrainians can also get you into trouble in Cuba. 14ymedio reported that "Cuban Pablo Enrique was detained on Saturday [February 26th] by State Security for leaving flowers at the Ukrainian Embassy in Havana, in solidarity with the country facing a Russian invasion. As confirmed to this daily, he was taken to the Seventh Police Unit of the National Revolutionary Police, where he was met by three agents. There, he received, 'many threats' and a second warning letter."
Iryna Bilyk, 3rd secretary of the Ukrainian consulate in Cuba with activist Pablo Enrique (Twitter/@Dicotomia7)
Many around the world were caught by surprise with Vladimir Putin's total invasion of Ukraine on February 24th and the atrocities committed, but if they had paid attention to the poisoning and murdering of dissidents and journalists, and the consolidation of his dictatorship or his brutal actions in Chechnya and 2014 invasion of Crimea, they would not have been surprised. The regime in Havana is cut from the same tyrannical cloth.
Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2022 country report on Cuba reveals the country in Latin America with the worst human rights score. The overview should be sobering to any optimists that the regime in Havana will reform itself.
Cuba’s one-party communist state outlaws political pluralism, bans independent media, suppresses dissent, and severely restricts basic civil liberties. The government continues to dominate the economy despite recent reforms that permit some private-sector activity. The regime’s undemocratic character has not changed despite a generational transition in political leadership between 2018 and 2021 that included the introduction of a new constitution.
The first three key developments of 2021 offer an even more shocking indictment of the Cuban dictatorship.
- Cuba saw the largest protests in over 20 years on July 11, as protesters nationwide rallied over goods shortages, economic difficulties, and the government’s COVID-19 response. Security forces responded violently, using live ammunition, tear gas, and charging maneuvers against participants. Detainees faced torture and degrading treatment while in custody and suffered due process violations during subsequent trials.
- The government continued to target the dissident San Isidro Movement (MSI) and 27N artist collectives during the year. MSI member Luis Manuel Otero Alcántra was forced to a hospital in early May to end a hunger strike and was detained on July 11, while MSI cofounder Maykel Castillo Pérez was detained in mid-May. Otero and Castillo remained in custody at year’s end.
- In August, the government gazetted Decree Laws 35 and 42, both of which target the dissemination of information deemed false or detrimental to “public order.” The government also gazetted Resolution 105, which targets “false news,” that month.
It is important to remember, and not be caught by surprise by the Cuban government's domestic brutality, or international outlaw behavior. Western democracies commit a grave error when they confuse the regime in Havana for a friend.
Clifford D. May, founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a columnist for the Washington Times, in his March 1, 2022 column "Russia, Ukraine and the West’s grand delusion of freedom Liberty must be defended or surrendered -- there's no third option" writes "the rulers of Russia and China — along with the rulers of Iran and North Korea, as well as the rulers of Venezuela and Cuba — have been forming what you might call an Axis of Authoritarians. Their common goal: weakening and diminishing America." May's analysis is too narrow. Their common goal is weakening and diminishing Western Democracies.
This is why policy makers around the world need to be reminded of the nature of these regimes. This is why the bipartisan effort to rename the street in front of the Embassy of Cuba in Washington D.C., Oswaldo Payá Way, after the Cuban human rights leader murdered on July 22, 2012 by the Castro regime is of importance.
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