From our Bureau of Socialist Tolerance, Compassion, and Social Justice
The numbers speak for themselves. The natives are restless, but the dictatorship continues to suppress dissent every day throughout the length of the island.
There are hotspots for demonstrations and repressive acts, as one might expect, but expressions of discontent are popping up everywhere.
And the repression is not only aimed at dissident organizations, but also at individuals who speak out on their own.
Loosely translated from CubaNet
The reports of the Cubalex Legal Information Center on the situation of human rights in Cuba document 782 repressive incidents that occurred on the island in the first quarter of the year. Thanks to the organization’s monitoring, it is also known that an average of eight repressive episodes occurred every day on the Island from January to March 2023.
CubaNet, using the reports of this organization as a source, presents an overview of how the repression has been in Cuba during the first months of the year.
In January, Cubalex counted 166 incidents of repression. This number grew to 247 in the month of February. In March, the figure more than doubled that of January: 342 acts of repression were recorded.
However, Cubalex warns that the data on repression at its disposal “should not be considered total or definitive.”
“Monitoring activity on the Internet, especially on social networks, does not allow us to cover the complaints of victims of human rights violations whose publications are private,” the organization indicates. In addition, the NGO details that “it is also not possible to hear complaints from persecuted people who do not have a cell phone or mobile data service, which prevents them from publishing their testimony.”
The provinces where more repressive acts were identified were Havana, Matanzas and Camagüey. However, other regions stood out by month: in January, for example, the situation in Mayabeque (as in February), Pinar del Río and Santiago de Cuba was worrying. Meanwhile, in March, Santiago established itself as one of the most repressive provinces.
According to reports by Cubalex, “Facebook is the most used complaint channel, both by the media and by complainants” to publicize repressive episodes.
Although the incidents are mostly suffered by members of opposition movements and organizations, as well as independent journalists, between 10 and 15 percent of the cases registered by Cubalex involve citizens who do not belong to any civil society group.
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