We, the undersigned civil society organisations, call upon the Cuban government and Cuban State entities to immediately cease all efforts to discredit Cuban artist Tania Bruguera and the IV INSTAR Film Festival, being held in 7 countries worldwide. This incident is the most recent of many where the Cuban government has attempted to suppress critical forms of free thought and expression that diverge from the state’s singular and totalising narrative, both on the island and abroad. 

A renowned multidisciplinary artist whose work has been shown at the Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the New Museum in New York, Bruguera was forced to leave Cuba in 2021 as a result of government pressure and persecution for her artistic work. Currently a senior lecturer and affiliate faculty at Harvard University, Bruguera is the founder and director of the Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism (INSTAR). In 2019, INSTAR put on the first edition of their film festival, an annual event that seeks to support and showcase independent film production, particularly spotlighting countries where freedom of expression is under threat.

For well over a decade, Tania Bruguera has faced persistent harassment by the Cuban government. This campaign to delegitimise her began in Cuba and has continued during her exile from 2021 onwards.

The Cuban government aims to limit her creative and professional spaces worldwide. Extraordinary efforts are currently underway to discredit INSTAR, with state-controlled media outlets suggesting that the festival and its accompanying activities constitute an attack on Cuban culture and an endorsement of terrorism, further asserting alleged links to foreign intelligence agencies.

Coordinated social media smear messaging by the Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso Grau and Cuba’s First Lady Lis Cuesta Peraza, among other public officials and government-affiliated artists, have depicted Cuban “artivists” (artist-activists) and independent filmmakers participating in this year’s INSTAR Film Festival, December 4-10, as “unhappy (unfortunate) and uncreative.” In addition, Cuban cultural institutions have launched a mass mailing campaign to cultural institutions and individuals around the world, in an attempt to discredit the festival and its organisers (email documentation has been provided to PEN International and the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC).

Cuba is one of the few countries in the region that imprisons artists, journalists, and writers for exercising their freedom of expression, according to the data compiled by PEN International and ARC, along with information from international civil society organizations. These individuals face severe harassment and persecution, as documented in the recent Método Cuba report, among other punitive measures imposed on those who question the institutional order. These coordinated efforts, aligned with broader patterns of suppression by the Cuban government that target any form of dissident or diverse thought, particularly when expressed through art and writing, were also addressed during the United Nations 44th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which included a joint human rights submission by a coalition of civil society organizations, among them PEN International and ARC.

We, the undersigned organisations, call on the Cuban government to immediately cease the aggressive harassment of Cuban artists, both within the country and in exile. In particular, we call on the Cuban authorities to stop the ongoing smear campaign against Tania Bruguera and the INSTAR festival, and to put an end to all state-sponsored actions aimed at undermining free thought and artistic expression among the Cuban people. Safeguarding art and artists is imperative, as they constitute vital components of a flourishing, equitable, and healthy society.

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Spanish authorities must investigate threats made to exiled Cuban journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa and ensure his and his family’s safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, July 25, two unidentified men with Cuban accents threatened Jiménez as he was walking home with his two-year-old son in Barcelona, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

Jiménez, who also posted about the encounter on Twitter, said that the men shouted at him, “Abraham, we know you are close to your home.” The journalist was not able to see their faces but said he could hear them laughing as they walked away from him and his son.

“I was so afraid because I was with my son that I didn’t know what to do,” he told CPJ. He wrote on Twitter that the scene reminded him of his life in Cuba.

Jiménez is a freelance Afro-Cuban journalist, co-founder of the online narrative journalism magazine El Estornudo, and a columnist for The Washington Post.

He left Cuba in September 2021 following persistent harassment from authorities in retaliation for his critical coverage, and received CPJ’s 2022 International Press Freedom Award for being a prominent outspoken voice within Cuba’s media community.

“We are concerned by the threatening comments made to Cuban journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator. “Spanish authorities must conduct a thorough investigation into the threats against Jiménez and his family and make sure they remain safe. It is incumbent upon Spain and other European Union countries to ensure the safety of journalists who are facing threats within their borders.”

The journalist told CPJ that he did not report the threat to the police because he did not know who his aggressors were. CPJ emailed the Barcelona police for comment but did not immediately receive any reply.

Jiménez told CPJ that this was not the first time he has been threatened by individuals with Cuban accents. In March 2022, during a panel in Amsterdam, one Cuban man asked to speak from the audience and tried to discredit him, claiming that everything he said was a lie.

“When the panel was over, he sought me out and offended me until the event organizers got him off my back,” he said. In June 2023 during Madrid’s Book Fair, a man with a Cuban accent also followed and photographed him.

In October 2020, Cuban authorities detained and interrogated Jiménez over his work. Shortly thereafter, he published a column in The Washington Post titled “If this is my last column here, it’s because I’ve been imprisoned in Cuba,” where he described his interrogation.

More recently, Jiménez has written about racism he has experienced while living in Europe, and also about efforts the Cuban government made to strengthen its national baseball team.

Jiménez was the winner of the 2023 Michael Jacobs Traveling Writing Grant, and was also chosen as one of five young journalists to receive the One Young World award this year.

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In 2018, alongside their fellow artists and intellectuals, Maykel Castillo Pérez (known as Maykel Osorbo) and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara cofounded Cuba’s San Isidro Movement (MSI), which began organizing artistic protests against decrees intended to limit free expression in Cuba. The subsequent crackdown was unrelenting. The government launched home raids and arbitrary detentions, and arrested MSI members. Between 2018 and 2021, Otero Alcántara and Osorbo were detained and released dozens of times between them. The jail stints did nothing to stop MSI’s work to defend human rights.

Authorities again arrested Otero Alcántara and Osorbo in 2021, but this time they didn’t release them. They were held in maximum-security prisons on fabricated charges before their trials opened. When proceedings finally took place, neither the international press, nor the independent Cuban press, nor the diplomats from various embassies, nor activists and Cuban citizens were allowed to enter. Everything was done behind closed doors. Otero Alcántara was sentenced to five years in prison; Osorbo got nine.

This week, Anamely Ramos González – a curator and academic who has worked alongside Otero Alcántara and Osorbo – participated in an interview with Freedom House about the persecution of artists by the Cuban government, and how artists are defending human rights and fighting for the release of political prisoners.

What can you tell us about how Maykel and Luis are faring since they were unjustly imprisoned two years ago?

The imprisonment and sentencing process has been very hard – not only because it has been unjust and lengthy, but also because a political prisoner in Cuba is always in danger. The Cuban State does not recognize the political nature of these convictions and continues to construct common criminal cases to prosecute them and keep them imprisoned. They are at the mercy of the police and prison guards, and also in danger from fellow prisoners who can be manipulated by those in power to threaten political prisoners. This is not hypothetical; it has happened with Luis and Maykel and it continues to happen.

Luis and Maykel have been in and out of solitary confinement, and they have both been denied medical assistance for serious conditions: in Maykel’s case, a failure in the lymphatic system that causes swollen glands, joint pain, and fever. Luis Manuel is experiencing temporary facial paralysis from one of the various hunger and thirst strikes he carried out in prison, and has been fainting recently from some unknown cause. Moreover, they continue to endure a psychological and emotional toll, knowing they are innocent but unable to fight for their rights.

As an art scholar and an activist, how have you used your skills to advocate for the release of Maykel, Luis, and the scores of other political prisoners unjustly detained in Cuba?

We have not stopped denouncing the Cuban state’s disrespect for freedom of expression and other rights of Cubans, as well as the constant and increasing repression of Cuban citizens. We have been present at international forums on human rights and have continued to meet with key members of the international community, human rights organizations, and partner activist collectives.

We have also amplified the artistic voices of Maykel and Luis. Since they were in prison, neither of them has stopped creating, and even from prison they continue to receive awards as artists. Maykel has two Latin Grammys as coauthor of “Patria y Vida” [“Homeland and Life, which became a protest anthem among youth in Cuba], and Luis has received, among other prizes, the biannual Prince Claus Foundation award for art and culture. Both have also received awards related to their work as human rights defenders, such as the Freedom Award granted by Freedom House. Award recognition is extremely important because it combats the Cuban authorities’ narrative denying that Luis and Maykel are artists. Recognition also helps guarantee their safety.

Luis and Maykel’s cases have been presented to the United Nations, with our help, and in both instances the United Nations has ruled that they should be released immediately. But the Cuban state does not respond to calls for attention, neither national nor international, related to human rights. It systematically violates human rights before everyone’s eyes.

What is it about artistic expression that so threatens the Cuban government?

Artistic expression demonstrates power, first individual and then collective. Art has the power to mobilize people to demand a more humane and equitable society. Art and culture are among the most transformative forces in communities and can regenerate the social fabric that authoritarianism tatters.

Art is a powerful weapon of denunciation, a way to express a state of injustice so that others may understand, and alliances may form. This terrifies totalitarian regimes like Cuba’s, that people could discover that they can express themselves and that their voice counts.

Click here to learn more about Maykel Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara – and other individuals who have been detained for championing human rights.

Note: Views expressed by our partners may not reflect Freedom House’s official positions.

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“The regime is legalizing censorship with a new law that allows it, at its leisure, to put an end to criticism of independent journalism and the opinions of its citizens on the Internet.”

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemns Cuba’s dictatorial regime for its ploy to “legalize censorship” by approving a law that will allow it to strengthen its coercion against press freedom, independent media, and journalists and further restrict citizens’ freedom of expression.

IAPA President Michael Greenspon said: “It is clear that the regime is increasing new forms of censorship against media and journalists through administrative and legal restrictions to defuse social discontent.” Greenspon, Global Head of Licensing & Print Innovation for The New York Times, added: “In its more than six decades of existence, the Cuban dictatorship has specialized in curtailing freedoms and violating human rights.”

Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power approved on May 26 the Law on Social Communication, which gives broad powers to the government to control or close independent media and extol the propaganda of the official press, the only ones authorized to operate in the country according to the Constitution: “The fundamental means of social communication, in any of its manifestations and supports, are socialist property of all the people or the political, social and mass organizations; and cannot be the object of any other type of property,” says the norm.

Greenspon recalled that the Cuban government unleashed relentless moments against freedom of the press in recent years when independent journalism could be more critical and freer. He recalled times when the regime closed all the privately-owned media, the Black Spring of 2003 when 75 people were imprisoned as dissidents, including more than two dozen journalists and the IAPA Vice President for Press Freedom in Cuba, Raúl Rivero. He also recalled that after the social protests of July 2021, the “11J”, numerous citizens and journalists were arrested, including Henry Constantín, current IAPA Vice President for Press Freedom, and that the regime blocked internet services, mobile telephony, and social media.

“Now, after expelling several journalists from the country and restricting the media and journalists, the regime is legalizing censorship with a new law that allows it, at its leisure, to put an end to criticism of independent journalism and the opinions of its citizens on the Internet,” Greenspon said.

The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Carlos Jornet, added: “It is clear that this law legitimizes the state to continue censoring without guilt, persecuting and gagging. The viciousness of the regime is not surprising if one considers its iron system of censorship, for which it uses the Penal Code, Law 88, and other decrees”.

The Penal Code punishes the author of criticism of state officials with imprisonment and guarantees impunity to the authorities. Article 143 establishes prison sentences of up to 10 years for receiving, using, and possessing foreign funds.

Law 88, on the protection of national independence and the economy, known as the “gag law,” criminalizes and condemns with imprisonment and confiscation of property anyone who “supplies, directly or through a third party, to the Government of the United States of America, its agencies, dependencies, representatives or officials, information to facilitate the objectives of the Helms-Burton Law,” enacted in 1996 to discourage foreign investment and to internationalize and strengthen the economic blockade against Cuba. That law was used against 29 journalists sentenced 2003 to prison terms of up to 28 years.

Decree 370, which regulates Internet use, applies severe fines and confiscates equipment for, among other crimes, sharing publications on social media considered contrary to the government.

Jornet, the editor of the Argentine daily La Voz del Interior, added: “The Cuban regime continually violates Inter-American standards favorable to freedom of the press and freedom of expression, such as the elimination of compulsory membership of journalists, the decriminalization of defamation offenses, the elimination of the offense of contempt to allow open criticism of the authorities, and the creation of laws on access to public information and transparency, to facilitate government oversight by journalists and the general public.”

International standards for the protection of human rights provide that any restrictions on freedom of expression must be provided for by law, pursue a legitimate aim, be appropriate to achieve that legitimate aim, and be necessary and proportionate or reasonable. “But in addition,” warned Jornet, “they establish that the national laws that provide for them must be under international norms and conventions so as not to jeopardize the right that must be guaranteed.”

Throughout more than six decades of military dictatorship in Cuba, the IAPA has constantly denounced the regime’s atrocities concerning violations of freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

The Chapultepec Index, an IAPA barometer that since 2019 measures institutional actions affecting press freedom and freedom of expression in 22 countries of the Americas, has kept Cuba at the bottom of the ranking. Among the significant stumbling blocks to press freedom, the Index emphasizes the following facts: police repression, spying, and blocking of the Internet with the support of the state-owned Telecommunications Company (Etecsa), defamatory propaganda against journalists and independent media through state media and social networks, lack of access to sources of public information, criminalization of journalistic activity through illegal arrests and police summons, and strict control of freedom of association through deportations and prohibitions so that they cannot move or make coverage freely around the country.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the Cuban parliament’s adoption of the country’s first law regulating online communication, which enshrines its prohibition of independent media and is designed to eliminate the small space for freedom of expression that had developed online.

The law regulating online communication and information, called the “Social Communication Law,” was adopted by a show of hands at a plenary meeting of Cuba’s national assembly on 26 May. Article 28 of the new law says media are “the socialist property of the entire people or of political, social and mass organisations, and cannot be the subject of any other kind of property.”

“This is a terrible day for journalism in Cuba. In the absence of regulation, the expansion of Internet access on the island in recent years had allowed independent media to develop online. By enshrining the ban on any media organisation outside the framework of the state and Communist Party control, the Cuban parliament has crushed the fragile space for freedom that had emerged, and has tightened the clampdown on press freedom in Cuba. We are concerned for the safety of journalists working for these independent media who are still in the country and we call for this repressive law’s immediate repeal.”

Artur Romeu, Director of RSF’s Latin America bureau

Cuba’s 1959 constitution already bans any privately-owned media initiative. But the first independent journalists’ organisations nonetheless began emerging at the end of the 1980s. In the context of a legal online void, mobile Internet’s arrival on the island in 2018 and the authorisation of domestic Wi-Fi networks in 2019 encouraged the rise of a new generation of independent news sites such as 14ymedio, el Toque, El Estornudo and Periodismo de barrio.

These media outlets were already targeted by restrictions in the new penal code that took effect in December 2022. It penalises organisations receiving foreign funding, “as is the case with independent media,” said Raudiel Pena Barros, a lawyer with the Havana-based Cuban Institution for Freedom of Expression and Press Freedom (ICLEP). “This new law, which grants them no legal status, tightens the vice on them,” he said.

In an address to the national assembly, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the new law was needed to prevent “subversion” and described Cuba’s independent media as “mercenaries” in the pay of foreign interests.

“This is how independent media have always been treated,” said José Luis Gallego, a Cuba journalist and communication researcher, who estimates that there are currently around 60 independent media outlets in Cuba. Harassment by the political police has already prompted a big exodus of journalists in recent years, one that is likely to increase as a result of these new measures.

Cuba has for years had Latin America’s lowest ranking in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index and is ranked 172nd out of 180 countries in the 2023 Index.

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International Women’s Day: Take Action Today for María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez (Cuba)

To mark International Women’s Day 2023, PEN International features the case of Cuban poet and activist María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez, imprisoned since July 2021 for her criticism of the Cuban government, and for participating in the peaceful protests that saw thousands of Cubans taking to the streets around the country and demanding reforms.

On International Women’s Day, as we embrace the theme of equity, let us not forget the case of Cuban poet and activist María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez. Her unwavering courage in the face of unjust persecution serves as a reminder of the urgent need for equitable action in every society. Let us work towards a world where every woman is free to express herself without fear of punishment or persecution. Zoe Rodriguez, Chair of PEN International Women Writers’ Committee

María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez (Cuba)

María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez is a Cuban poet and activist. On March 10, 2022, she was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of ‘public disorder,’ ‘assault’, ‘instigation to commit a crime’, ‘contempt,’ and ‘resistance’.

This follows her arrest on July 12, 2021 for participating, alongside her sister and thousands of Cubans, in the July 11 peaceful protests against the repression of their fundamental rights, including over the government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis and worsening economy.

Upon her arrest, Garrido was beaten several times by the Cuban political police, and was subjected to enforced disappearance for 18 days.

She is currently held in the women’s Guatao Prison where since her arrest, she has been subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including solitary confinement and beatings, and denied food, water and adequate sanitary conditions, as well as family visits and calls at times.

In December 2021, in a letter from prison, Garrido spoke of her pride in taking part in the events of July 11, and denouncing the horrors faced by those inside Cuban prisons.  ‘On July 11, we showed courage, decisiveness, breaking with the silence of the years; we demonstrated unanimity and pluralism, because young people, adults, the elderly, university students and farmers, housewives and workers, also leaders and even party cadres took to the streets to say yes to the overthrow of the dictatorship and for a prosperous and democratic Cuba’. She also said that State Security ‘punishes me for every letter I write, but I cannot stop breathing’.

Together with her sister, Angélica, Garrido, went on hunger strike for five days on September 20, 2022 to protest  their sentences and continued detention. According to family members, the Cuban authorities had relied on false testimony from police officers and others who served as witnesses during her trial in January 2022.

Garrido was born in Quivicán, Mayaquebé in 1982. She is the author of Examen de tiempo (Time examination), published in 2022, and the recipient of the 2008 First National Prize in the Carlos Baliño Tobacco Competition. She is a member of the Cuban Women’s Network, where she supports the visibility of women in various spaces, and other activist networks such as the Fundación Vuelta abajo por Cuba and of the Latin Federation of Rural Women. Large part of Garrido’s work has been seized by the Cuban state from her home in Quivicán.

For more information on freedom of expression in Cuba click here.

The cemetery of the living

 This is a fragment of “The cemetery of the living”, a poem written while in prison:

I’m writing this moan right now

in an early morning of prisoners and opprobrium

where the doors sound like tears and oblivion.

I can’t sleep.

I discovered that it is better to write at this time

in which the pain of others sleeps

and silence softens the mind

and the spirit.

The night is my spur

although it is the greatest danger.

Doctors without a coat and without a vocation

they flee from the pleas

and I fear dying in a long unexpected pain.

We call this place The Cemetery of the Living.

Here justice is buried without an undertaker

inexorable of the motherland

as if the crime of a child was buried

or a flower

(…)

Take action

María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez is facing a hefty prison sentence solely for exercising her right to freely express herself. PEN International calls on the Cuban authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Garrido, and to drop all charges against her. This is what you can do:

 Advocacy

 Write to the Cuban authorities, calling on them to:

• Release Garrido immediately and unconditionally, and drop all charges against her;
• Pending her release, ensure that she is provided with regular communication with her family and adequate health care, and that she in not subjected to any form of ill-treatment;
• Release all imprisoned writers and artists unjustly imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of expression and artistic expression
• Abide by their international human rights obligations and uphold the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.

Send appeals to:

President Sr. Miguel Díaz-Canel:

Email: despacho@presidencia.gob.cu

Twitter: @DiazCanelB

Minister of Justice Oscar Silvera Martínez:

Email: apoblacion@minjus.gob.cu

Twitter: @CubaMinjus

Facebook: @MinisterioJusticiaCuba

Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso Grau:

Twitter: @AlpidioAlonsoG

Facebook: @MinisterioCulturaCuba

Minister of Foreign Affairs (Minrex) Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla:

Email: dm@minrex.gob.cu

Twitter: @BrunoRguezP

Facebook: @CubaMINREX

Please send emails to the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba in your own country.

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CPJ is honored to present its 2022 International Press Freedom Award to Cuban journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa.

Abraham Jiménez Enoa is a freelance Afro-Cuban journalist and co-founder of the online narrative journalism magazine El Estornudo, launched in 2016. He is also a columnist for The Washington Post and Gatopardo.

Jiménez is a prominent outspoken voice within Cuba’s media community, providing fresh perspectives on challenges for independent journalists and reporting on issues rarely covered by state media, including racism in Cuba. His writing has appeared in international outlets including BBC World, Al-Jazeera, and Univisión, and the Cuba-focused outlets OnCuba and El Toque.

Jiménez has faced lengthy interrogations by the police in retaliation for his work, his family members and neighbors have been summoned for questioning, his mobile internet access has been blocked to prevent him from reporting, and authorities have arbitrarily enforced restrictions barring him from leaving Cuba.

In one particular incident in October 2020, plainclothes state security officers strip-searched and handcuffed Jiménez, interrogated him for five hours, and threatened him and his family over his writings about life in Cuba in his monthly Washington Post column. Despite authorities’ threats of legal repercussions if he continued to publish in The Washington Post, later that week Jiménez published another column, stating it could be his last given the threat of imprisonment.

The persistent harassment and censorship forced Jiménez to flee to Spain in 2021, where he is currently living in exile.

Bestowing this year’s IPFA on Jiménez recognizes that Cuba remains one of the most challenging environments in the Americas for the press, and that a new generation of Cuban journalists who only a few years ago saw a glimmer of hope for their independent projects are facing the harsh reality of new restrictions and censorship that make reporting in Cuba as dangerous as ever.

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Hundreds still held; thousands forced to flee

The Cuban government committed systematic human rights violations in response to massive anti-government protests in July 2021 with the apparent goal of punishing protesters and deterring future demonstrations, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today, the anniversary of the protests.

The 36-page report, “Prison or Exile: Cuba’s Systematic Repression of July 2021 Demonstrators,” documents a wide range of human rights violations committed in the context of the protests, including arbitrary detention, abuse-ridden prosecutions, and torture. The government’s repression and its apparent unwillingness to address the underlying problems that drove Cubans to the streets, including limited access to food and medicine, have generated a human rights crisis that dramatically increased the number of people leaving the country.

“A year ago today, thousands of Cubans protested, demanding rights and freedoms, but the government gave many of them only two options: prison or exile,” said Juan Pappier, senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Governments in Latin America and Europe should urgently escalate their human rights scrutiny over Cuba and prioritize a concerted, multilateral response before this human rights crisis becomes even worse.”

On July 11, 2021, thousands of Cubans took to the streets in the largest nationwide demonstrations against the government since the 1959 Cuban revolution. These peaceful protests were a response to longstanding restrictions on rights, food and medicine scarcity, and the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 170 people in Cuba, including abuse victims, their relatives, and lawyers. Human Rights Watch also reviewed case files and verified photographs and videos sent directly to researchers and found on social media platforms. Members of the Independent Forensic Expert Group of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, an international group of prominent forensic experts, provided expert opinion on some evidence of abuses.

Shortly after the protests began, President Miguel Díaz-Canel urged government supporters and security forces to respond to the protests with force. “We call on all revolutionaries to go to the streets to defend the revolution,” he said. “The order to fight has been given.”

One protester, a 36-yeard-old singer named Diubis Laurencio Tejeda, died, seemingly at the hands of the police. The Cuban human rights group Cubalex reports that over 1,400 people were detained, including more than 700 who remain behind bars.

Officers repeatedly detained people who were protesting peacefully, arrested critics as they headed to demonstrations, or prohibited them from leaving their homes for days or weeks.

In most documented cases, detainees were held incommunicado for days, weeks, and sometimes months, without being able to make a phone call or receive visits from their relatives or lawyers. Some were beaten, forced to squat naked, or subjected to ill-treatment, including sleep deprivation and other abuses that in some cases constitute torture.

Cuban courts have confirmed the convictions against more than 380 protesters and bystanders, including several children. Many trials took place before military courts, which contravenes international law. Many were prosecuted for “sedition” and sentenced to disproportionate prison terms of up to 25 years for allegedly participating in violent incidents, such as throwing rocks during the protests.

Prosecutors framed actions such as protesting peacefully or insulting the president or the police, lawful exercises of freedom of expression and association, as criminal behavior. People were convicted on unreliable or uncorroborated evidence, such as statements solely from security officers, or alleged “odor traces” of the defendants found on rocks.

Victims and their relatives said that security forces repeatedly harassed them, in some cases causing them to leave the country.

Orelvys Cabrera Sotolongo, a 36-year-old journalist for the news website Cubanet, was arrested in Cárdenas, Matanzas province, as he left the demonstrations on July 11. Officers interrogated him repeatedly, telling him he would not see his family again. Cabrera was only allowed to make a phone call 10 days after his arrest. He spent part of his detention with eight other detainees in a two-by-one-and-a-half-meter cell, with little to no ventilation, light, or access to water.

He was released on August 19, but officers repeatedly told him he should leave the country. In December, he and his partner fled and have since requested asylum in the United States.

Security agents arrested Elier Padrón Romero, a 26-year-old mason’s assistant, on July 21 in La Güinera, a low-income neighborhood in Havana province. His mother said officers beat him and other detainees saying they would be “disappeared if they continued to think” as they did.

In December, a judge in Havana convicted Padrón Romero of “sedition” because he allegedly incited people to join a July 12 protest and to “push” against a police barricade. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, which was reduced to 10 years on appeal.

Cuban authorities have also taken steps to dismantle the limited civic space that allowed these protests to occur. In May 2022, lawmakers passed a new criminal code that includes multiple overly broad offenses that could be used to criminalize peaceful challenging of the government. The new code also provides the death penalty for a range of crimes, including “sedition,” a charge brought against many July 11 demonstrators, and “acts against the independence of the Cuban state.”

The number of Cubans fleeing the country has increased dramatically. US Border Patrol detained over 118,000 Cubans between January and May 2022 – compared with 17,000 in same period in 2021. The US Coast Guard has interdicted over 2,900 Cubans on the sea since October 2021, by far the highest figure in five years. Many Cubans have also fled to other countries.

Latin American governments, the United States, Canada, and the European Union should take steps to ensure a multilateral and coordinated approach toward Cuba that prioritizes human rights. They should unequivocally condemn the repression and bring attention to the situation in relevant United Nations bodies, particularly the Human Rights Council.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who has rarely condemned abuses in Cuba, should publicly condemn these systematic violations before she leaves office in late August.

For decades, the Cuban government has benefited from a dysfunctional response by the international community that has failed to effectively promote progress on human rights in the country, Human Rights Watch said.

The US government’s sweeping economic embargo has isolated the United States rather than Cuba, by enabling the Cuban government to garner sympathy abroad.

Many Latin American governments, recently including Mexico and Argentina, have been reluctant to criticize Cuba and have even praised the Cuban government, despite its dismal human rights record.

“The brave protesters who took to the streets last year in Cuba have every reason to feel they have been abandoned by a large part of the international community,” Pappier said.

Download the full report in English

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As we mark Independence Day in the United States this week, we are also reminded of the ongoing struggle people all over the world face in securing their political rights and civil liberties.

Monday, July 11, will mark the one-year anniversary of the J11 protests in Cuba, which were extraordinary for occurring in one of the world’s most repressive environments. To mark these historic protests, we interviewed Alessandra Pinna, director of programs for the Latin America and Caribbean region, to discuss what Cubans are doing to secure a freer future and how the international community can help. 

Q: Much of the world is unfamiliar with the current situation in Cuba. How would you describe the state of democracy there?  

Cuba is a one-party state, with a political system that offers neither pluralism nor the separation of powers. Civil liberties, including freedom of speech, assembly, expression, and belief, are restricted. People living on the island do not benefit from the free flow of information and cannot safely engage in dissent. Journalists and human rights defenders (HRDs) are regularly harassed, detained, interrogated, threatened, and defamed in state-run media outlets like Granma and Cuba Debate.

Cubans already contend with poor housing conditions and worsening shortages of essential goods like food, medicine, and fuel. But now, Cubans must also grapple with the risk of power outages thanks to power plant malfunctions. In democratic countries, these deeply rooted difficulties would lead to street protests, but that behavior is thoroughly suppressed and even criminalized in Cuba. Today, there are over 1,000 political prisoners in the country, more than in Nicaragua and Venezuela combined.

Q: What made last year’s protests so special to the people of Cuba?  

First, the protests were especially large; in fact, they were the largest demonstrations Cuba has seen since the 1959 revolution. These protests were the result of months of collaboration between veteran dissidents, emerging leaders, new movements, and organized communities.

Second, J11 participants used the internet to persuade their neighbors to take part. As protesters took to social media under the #SOSCuba banner, others overcame their fear and made their voices heard on the streets of over 60 towns across the island.

Finally, protesters noted the link between their economic and political circumstances. International attention was largely focused on demonstrators’ concerns over food prices and goods shortages, but we should go deeper to identify the cause of this unprecedented social uprising. Protesters were motivated by their dissatisfaction of an illegitimate political system that allowed those issues to fester. Protesters chanted for “Freedom!” because it was clear to them that the shortages are the result of six decades of political monopolization, financial irresponsibility, and a total lack of accountability.

Q: What has happened since the historic protests?

The regime immediately cracked down on protesters, and President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez encouraged security forces and government supporters to respond violently. Dozens were injured in clashes, and over 1,400 were detained according to Cubalex and Justicia 11J. In the past year, 600 people have been prosecuted for demonstrating; some have received prison sentences between six and 30 years, including minors. Some 700 people are still in detention as of last month. The regime has also refined its repressive tactics, weaponizing legislation to criminalize dissent. The first law enforced after J11, Decree Law 35, established new criminal prohibitions on publishing information online – a direct attack on social media, which was used to tremendous effect to embolden protesters.

By forcing HRDs into prison, forced exile, or hiding over the past year, the regime has neutralized an energetic movement that captured the hearts and minds of millions of Cubans and dampened prospects for future protests of the same scale.

Q: What can be done to help HRDs in Cuba?

While the J11 protests highlighted the Cuban people’s determination to demand greater freedoms, citizens – especially HRDs – remain vulnerable to a ruthless and sophisticated authoritarian regime. The international community cannot leave the Cuban people alone in their efforts to secure fundamental freedoms and accountability for human rights abuses.

The international community can pressure the Cuban government to refrain from repressive tactics like arbitrary detention. International actors should publicly demand the release of political prisoners like Freedom House Freedom Award 2022 winners Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Pérez, who respectively received five- and nine-year prison terms for expressing dissent through their artistic output in June. In addition, international actors can press Havana to allow visits from representatives of bodies like the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. This way, conditions in Cuban prisons can be assessed and Havana can be held accountable for the treatment of political prisoners. The European Union can also leverage its engagement with Havana to good effect.

Moreover, defending internet freedom in Cuba is crucial. The international community should call on Havana to remove arbitrary internet-access restrictions and end online censorship. Actors should also expand their digital-security and digital-activism programming so that HRDs can circumvent state restrictions and protect themselves against surveillance.

Q:  Cuba has been under a repressive regime for nearly 60 years. Are you hopeful for the future independence of the Cuban people and Cuban civil society?

The J11 protests demonstrated that the government’s persistent inability to meet basic needs, coupled with ongoing repression, has eroded its legitimacy and weakened the social control it has cultivated over six decades. The glaring quality-of-life gap between ordinary citizens and government officials emboldened Cubans – even erstwhile regime supporters or those who had remained silent for fear of reprisal – to protest on July 11, 2021.

The Cuban regime has demonstrated its resilience and stamina, to be sure. For decades, it has refined its tools of repression and surveillance, allowing it to muffle – if not silence – even the loudest eruptions of dissatisfaction. After J11, scores of activists have been exiled, which will stymie the efforts of future generations. Moreover, as democratic nations face their own crises of legitimacy, Havana continues to strengthen its relationships with other authoritarian states, such as Russia, China, and Iran, learning and sharing tactics of suppression to remain in power.

Ultimately, the Cuban people are just as resilient in the face of repression, as evidenced by José Martí’s dedication to Cuban freedom in the 1800s and the present-day work of civil society groups like Las Damas de Blanco (The Ladies in White) and Movimiento San Isidro. Their constant efforts, then and now, offer hope. The Cuban people have found pockets of solidarity within their country’s restrictive environment and will not give up on their demands for freedom. Now is the time for the international community to lend their full support to the courageous activists and organizations who work fearlessly to achieve that aim.

Learn more about Cuba and the country’s history on freedom and democracy by reading the latest Freedom in the World report, and visit our Latin America and Caribbean Programs page to learn more about Freedom House’s programs in the region.

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