Over 1,200 Political Prisoners Remain in Cuban Jails Despite Regime’s Mass Release Claims. CFC Launches Petition Drive Demanding Their Freedom.
In early April 2026, the Cuban dictatorship announced the pardon and release of over 2,010 prisoners, presenting it as a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture.”
Independent verification by families, Prisoners Defenders, Cubalex, and the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights reveals the overwhelming majority were common criminals.
More than 1,200 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience—men and women jailed solely for exercising their rights to free expression, peaceful assembly, and protest—remain behind bars.
These prisoners of conscience endure inhumane conditions: prolonged solitary confinement, denial of medical care, torture, malnutrition, contaminated water, and filthy cells.
Their families are subjected to harassment and surveillance.
Representative cases highlighted in the petition illustrate the regime’s cruelty: artist and San Isidro Movement leader Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, imprisoned since July 2021 for nonviolent artistic activism and now on hunger strike amid death threats; Grammy-winning musician Maykel Castillo Pérez (“Maykel Osorbo”), co-author of the protest anthem “Patria y Vida”; veteran opposition leader Félix Navarro Rodríguez, founder of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy, re-arrested in April 2025 and held in prolonged isolation; Sayli Navarro Álvarez, imprisoned for her human rights defense work and nonviolent dissent; president of the Free Yoruba Association Donaida Pérez Paseiro, re-arrested in May 2025 for her advocacy on behalf of religious and political freedoms; recognized prisoner of conscience Loreto Hernández García, detained for nonviolent opposition activities with reports of deteriorating health and denial of medical care; Alexander Díaz Rodríguez, imprisoned for exercising freedom of expression and assembly and diagnosed with thyroid cancer since 2022 without proper medical treatment; opposition figure Jaime Alcide Firdó, re-arrested in April 2025 amid the regime’s crackdown on dissidents; Rolando Yusef Pérez Morera, opposition activist and one of the leaders of the 11J protests, suffering from severe malnutrition without medical attention; and independent journalist José Gabriel Barrenechea, jailed for participating in a peaceful street protest during a blackout.
These are not isolated cases—they represent over a thousand voices the Cuban dictatorship seeks to silence.
The Center has launched a petition drive on Change.org: “Urgent Request to Prioritize the Release of Cuban Political Prisoners.” The petition calls on the United States, the Holy See, the European Union, and Canada to use their influence to secure the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, grant full and immediate access to Cuban prisons for the International Committee of the Red Cross and other independent monitors, and end the criminalization of peaceful dissent.
Please sign the petition today at https://www.change.org/FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners and share it with your family, friends, and networks. The time for action is now.
Every signature strengthens the global demand for justice and brings closer the day when Cuba’s political prisoners walk free. Where is the outrage? Let us stand together in solidarity with Cuba’s prisoners of conscience. Their freedom is Cuba’s freedom.
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