Repression in Cuba is only comparable to the beginning of Castroism, says NGO

Current repression in Cuba has reached levels only comparable to those at the beginning of the current regime and the Missile Crisis six decades ago, as the Center for a Free Cuba (CCL) denounced this Monday (24) in an updated report on violations. of human rights after the protests last July.

The report follows a statement in which the US-based non-governmental organization calls for the release of all political prisoners and an end to trials on false charges, such as those being held in Matanzas against Félix Navarro Rodríguez, his daughter, Sayli Navarro. Álvarez, and other opponents.

“These are not just trials, but part of a terror campaign by the Cuban government to silence dissent in Cuba. I call for the immediate and unconditional release of all Cuban political prisoners and an end to these false procedures,” said John Suarez, executive director of the CCL.

In the statement, the CCL highlights the testimony of Iliana Cedeño Ávila, a human rights activist and sister of political prisoner José Ángel Cedeño Ávila, arrested on July 11 and tried at the end of December, but for whom the court has not yet pronounced a sentence, what has “desperate” their relatives.

According to his sister, who asks the international community for help, Cedeño Ávila was brutally beaten after being detained and has marks of these blows and bacteria on his skin, which is why he is in the prison hospital in the city of Boniato.

The CCL indicates in the report that, during the period between July and December 2021, there were about 5,000 arrests of protesters, almost five times more than the calculations that were made based on “partial reports and with incomplete information”.

These calculations put the number of detainees at around 1,300, of whom around 800 are still in prison or awaiting trial.

The Center for a Free Cuba considers that “a number much lower than the real one” and warns that “the conditions of many detainees are still unknown due to the repression against their families, which prevents them from speaking and providing information” and “there are still trials to be held and convictions to be confirmed.”

He also recalls that the “international community that at the time raised its voice in favor of the Cuban people at the time of the communist imposition on the island, has an obligation to do the same now”.

The CCL Executive Director is one of more than 200 human rights defenders, religious leaders, writers, artists, intellectuals, journalists, business people, former diplomats, academics and activists who have made an appeal to both Cuban authorities and democracies around the world. and civil, religious and political leaders.

The appeal calls for an end to repression in Cuba, the elimination of restrictions on the distribution of humanitarian aid, the entry of the Red Cross into Cuban prisons and the release of all political prisoners.