On August 26, Amnesty International five additional Cubans as political prisoners.[1]
All of them, said Amnesty, had been detained since 2015 and sentenced to one to five years for “public disorder,” “contempt” or “disorder” while two of them, according to relatives, had been badly beaten. Amnesty’s Americas Director, Erika Guevara-Rosas, said “For decades, Cuba has stifled freedom of expression and assembly by locking up people for their beliefs and opposition to the government. Over the years, the names of Cuba’s prisoners of conscience have changed, but the state’s tactics have stayed almost exactly the same.”
Amnesty added, “Sadly, we know that the five prisoners of conscience we have named today likely represent a tiny fraction of those behind bars for peacefully expressing their views. As the Cuban authorities continue to deny independent human rights monitors access to the country and its prisons, and because the state’s machinery of control maintains a profound climate of fear, there are serious barriers for Amnesty International to document such cases.”
Also on August 26, “the head of Cuba’s largest opposition group, the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), Jose Daniel Ferrer, said on Twitter that security forces had detained 15 activists and prevented dozens of others from reaching their local headquarters in order to prevent activities to celebrate the group’s eighth anniversary.”
Cuban Prisoners Defenders, which is based in Madrid and which has links to UNPACU, estimates there are at least 70 political prisoners on the island.
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[1] Amnesty Int’l, Cuba: Amnesty International names five new prisoners of conscience (Aug. 26, 2019); Reuters, Amnesty International Names Five New Political Prisoners in Cuba, N.Y. Times (Aug. 26, 2019).
