Free Cuba Now!

To promote a nonviolent transition to a Cuba that respects human rights, political and economic freedoms, and the rule of law.   Death penalty for protesting in Cuba. Fifteen years in prison for live streaming a protest. Eight years in prison for taking a photo of a sign that said “Patria y Vida.” Senior officials of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice on the program  'We Make Cuba' broadcast in April 2024 warned of the legal consequences of those who participate in large scale protests including being charged with "sedition", "disturbing the socialist constitutional order" with prison sentences ranging between 10 and 30 years, life imprisonment, and in "exceptional cases" the "death penalty." In Havana’s current penal code brought into force on December 1, 2022 the death penalty was expanded to 24 crimes, which includes “crimes against state security.. Amnesty International Cuban prisoner of conscience Maykel Castillo Pérez, better known as Maykel Osorbo, a rapper and dissident, almost loses part of his left ear. He was attacked in Kilo 5 and Medio prison in Pinar del Río province by several common inmates. This attack was orchestrated by prison officials. Jose Luis Tan Estrada, journalist, is a prisoner in Villa Marista since the afternoon of April 26, 2024 when he attempted to make a trip from Camagüey to Havana. Tan Estrada’s health condition could worsen since he suffers from several medical conditions. This includes gastric reflux due to a hernia, sores in the esophagus, and irritable bowel syndrome. After being expelled from the University of Camagüey at the end of 2022, where he taught, He began working as an independent journalist, and providing humanitarian assistance to those in need. From then on, he has experienced harassment from State Security in his province, just for denouncing the reality of communist Cuba.  The Committee to Protect Journalists is demanding his release. Thirteen Cubans have received sentences ranging from 4 to 15 years in prison for nonviolently protesting in the streets. The trial - which was originally going to take place in December but was postponed - was held in January 2024, in two 12 hour sessions. Only two relatives per detainee were able to access the interior of the room, according to eyewitnesses present who told the EFE newswire.     Mayelín Rodríguez Prado (age 23) sentenced to 15 years in prison for streaming video of protest. Fifteen Years in prison for Transmitting a Protest Live in Cuba Mayelín Rodríguez Prado (age 23), received the longest sentence of 15 years, accused of “continued enemy propaganda” and “sedition.” She was the one who streamed live the popular protests that occurred in Nuevitas and recorded how government agents beat two eleven-year-old girls.  Mayelín was jailed at age 21, and separated from her toddler. Eight years in prison for taking a photo of a sign that said “Patria y Vida.” Yennis Artola Del Sol was sentenced to eight years in prison simply for taking a photograph of a sign that said “Patria y Vida.” For this reason, she has been accused of “enemy propaganda of a continuous nature.”  These are not aberrations but a feature of the 65 year old regime currently holding power in Havana. Cuba has been under the rule of a communist dictatorship dominated by Fidel and Raul Castro over the past 65 years. Currently there are over 1,000 political prisoners in Cuba, with an average age of 32 years old, a majority imprisoned for taking part in nonviolent protests in July of 2021. This dictatorship has taken part in the extrajudicial killings of nonviolent opponents, and also carried out massacres of Cubans fleeing the island to the present day. The United States has strongly criticized this latest example of political show trials in Cuba. "The harsh sentencing this week of up to 15 years in prison for Cubans who peacefully assembled in Nuevitas in 2022 is outrageous. The Cuban government's continued repression of Cubans striving to fulfill their basic rights and needs is unconscionable." said  Ambassador Brian A. Nichols, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department of State over X on . Why did protests break out in Nuevitas? Yoani Sanchez in an August 23, 2022 piece republished and translated to English in the Havana Times "Why the Protests in Nuevitas, Camaguey, Cuba?" explained that "in the 1960s, some guerrillas who had just come to power decided to turn it into the 'industrial city' of the country, a Caribbean icon of development and modernity." According to Yoani, "those who packed their bags in other provinces of Cuba and moved to Nuevitas, believing that if socialism was going to bear its first fruits of prosperity and bonanza somewhere, it would be in that piece of land with the smell of the sea. But the bubble burst at the end of the 1980s, when the Soviet subsidy, essential to maintaining that showcase, began to fade." ..."Those who took to the streets on August 19 were, for the most part, the children of those who were made to believe that this beautiful seaport could only experience better times, evolution and splendor."   Full article     Center for a Free Cuba 417 West Broad Street, Suite 204 Falls Church, VA 22046 www.cubacenter.org Preferences  |  Unsubscribe