In August 2022 many Cuban citizens engaged in protests calling for an end to the “unbearable blackouts that made life impossible for the residents of several regions of Cuba during that summer.”[1]
On or about April 29, 2024, a Cuban court sentenced some of those individuals to 10 to 15 years imprisonment.
Later that same day U.S. Undersecretary of State, Brian A. Nichols, said on Twitter, “The harsh sentence this week of up to 15 years in prison for the Cubans who peacefully gathered in Nuevitas in 2022 is outrageous.The Cuban Government’s continued repression against Cubans who strive to fulfill their basic rights and needs is inconceivable.”
Expressing the same reaction was the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, “These brutal sentences, the majority between ten and 15 years, are part of the repression suffered by Cubans who express themselves critically about the current situation in the country.” The Observatory added, “We are facing a hatred of the Cuban people that has no compassion for anyone and that does not even listen to the large number of requests in favor of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, including those of the Catholic Church.”
Cuban authorities also mentioned that the crime of sedition, which authorizes sentences of life imprisonment and even the death penalty, was contemplated for use against those who promote or participate in massive protests in Cuba that endanger the regime and its control institutions.[2]
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[1] ‘Outrageous,’ the US describes the sentences against the Nuevitas protesters, Diario de Cuba (April 30, 2024); Nichols, Twitter Post (April 29, 2024),
[2] The regime threatens to apply life imprisonment or death in case of mass protests, Diario de Cuba (April 26, 2024).