A vigil commemorating the second anniversary of the July 11 uprising in Cuba in front of the communist dictatorship’s embassy in Washington, D.C. is being planned by the Center for a FREE Cuba. If you’re in the area, please join in support of freedom in Cuba and the end of the Castro tyranny.
Via ADN Cuba (my translation):
A call is made to join a vigil in front of the Castro embassy in the U.S. for July 11
The Center for a Free Cuba has called for a vigil in front of the Cuban regime’s embassy in Washington, D.C. on July 11th, to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the anti-government protests on the island.
Cuba Decide, the Patmos Institute, the Victims of Communism Foundation, and the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba are also organizing this demonstration.
John Suárez, the executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba, told ADN Cuba that the people gathering there will show their solidarity with the Cubans who took to the streets on the island two years ago.
“We protest against the brutality inflicted by the dictatorship on the people. We demand the release of more than a thousand political prisoners and also remember the victims of the Cuban dictatorship, such as Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero, who were killed on July 22, 2012, as well as the women and children of the March 13th tugboat massacre,” Suárez added.
On July 11th and 12th, 2021, unprecedented protests occurred across all the country’s provinces demanding an end to the dictatorship, the resignation of ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, and better living conditions.
The repression unleashed by the regime in Havana was brutal, and at least one protester, Diubis Laurencio Tejeda from La Güinera neighborhood, was killed by a police officer, Second Lt. Yoennis Pelegrín Hernández.
These popular demonstrations significantly increased the number of political prisoners on the island. According to the organization Prisoners Defenders, as of May 2023, there were a total of 1037 people detained in the country for political reasons.
Furthermore, among the current list, 214 protesters have been charged with sedition, and at least 207 have been sentenced to an average of 10 years of prison each.