To promote a nonviolent transition to a Cuba that respects human rights, political and economic freedoms, and the rule of law.
Update on prisoners of conscience in Cuba
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Aniette González: Two of the over 1,000 prisoners of conscience in Cuba.
There are currently over a thousand prisoners of conscience in Cuba. Most were jailed for taking part in nationwide protests in July 2021 demanding freedom, human rights, and an end to dictatorship.
14ymedio reported that Amnesty International condemned the February 2, 2024 decision of the Municipal Court of Camagüey to sentence activist Aniette González García to three years in prison. Her crime? She was convicted of “outraging national symbols”, the 43-year-old woman was arrested “for publishing a photo on social networks with the national flag in solidarity with Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.”
Collage of some of the over 1,000 political prisoners jailed today in Cuba ( Office of Carlos A. Gimenez )
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is one of the founders of Cuba’s San Isidro movement, Luis Manuel helped bring injustices against artists by the Cuban government to the global stage. In 2021, Alcántara was named an “icon” by Time magazine. He was jailed trying to go out to protest on July 11, 2021, and on June 24, 2022, he was sentenced to five years in prison, after a trial behind closed doors. In prison, Luis Manuel’s health is declining and he’s not getting proper medical care, reported Amnesty International. .
Last month Luis Manuel smuggled a statement out of prison that concludes:: “I struggle in this horrible place, which contrasts starkly with my reality in freedom, a reality full of beautiful sunrises and love and friendships. As a result, the good experiences of love have assumed another dimension in my consciousness.”
In 1987, the documentary "Nobody Listened" captured the human rights reality in Cuba with interviews with former political prisoners, archival footage of firing squads and other instances of repression. Former prisoners described show trials, extrajudicial executions, and cruel and unusual punishment that rose to the level of torture. 37 years later, and Cuba’s prisons remain full of political prisoners, The documentary demonstrates that repression in Cuba is not a bug, but a feature of the system.
Thirty five years have passed since the last time the International Committee of the Red Cross was able to visit Cuban prisons. Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross has visited the U.S. Guantanamo detention facility over 100 times since 2002.
There are those who for decades have sought to normalize this abnormal and abhorrent state of affairs that have plagued Cuba for 65 years, but what they have done is to spread the contagion to Nicaragua, and Venezuela, inviting more misery to tens of millions more.
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