It has been over three years since Cubans took to the streets on July 11, 2021 in massive peaceful protests that spread across the island, and nearly 600 of those arrested are still in a Castro gulag. The latest annual report from an independent human rights organization counts 554 Cubans are still in prison three years later for expressing their discontent with the totalitarian regime.
The Cuban regime is holding 554 individuals in prison for their participation in the anti-government protests of July 2021 in dozens of cities and towns across Cuba, the largest recorded in the country, reported the independent organization Justicia 11J on Wednesday.
In its third annual report, “Another Year Without Justice,” for 2024, the non-governmental organization revealed that 1,586 people were detained for protesting during the popular uprising on July 11, of which 554—35%—are still in prison three years later, “with confirmed sentences following appeals that extend to more than 20 years of deprivation of liberty.”
“The repression on the Island, by state entities, is systematic and structural,” warned Justicia 11J in the report presented virtually this Wednesday, which also includes a statistical and evaluative analysis of the protests that took place in Cuba between July 2023 and July 2024.
The NGO recalled that during the protests on July 11 and 12, 2021, members of the Ministry of the Interior (Minint), supported by the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) and state-sponsored groups known as Rapid Response Brigades, “used armed violence against unarmed citizens.”
About a dozen people were injured in protests across the country, and in the La Güinera neighborhood of Havana, 36-year-old Diubis Laurencio Tejeda was killed after being shot in the back by a police officer.
One of the reasons the communist Castro dictatorship can get away with imprisoning hundreds of peaceful protesters is because the international community turns a blind eye to their crimes against humanity. Occasional tepid statements against the regime’s human rights violations mean nothing when these countries continue to do business with and offer support and cover for the totalitarian regime in Havana.
Yes, and Havana knows exactly how the game is played, since it’s a very old game.