After last Wednesday it became known that the Cuban Justice sentenced 128 people to a total of 1,916 years in prison for acts related to the anti-government protests of July 11, 2021 in Havana, international reactions have not been long in coming.
The Supreme Court of the Republic informed last Wednesday in a press release of six sentences related to the events that occurred in the capital municipalities of Diez de Octubre and Arrojo Naranjo, where some of the most violent incidents of the demonstrations of that day took place. , which were generally peaceful. In fact, the only officially recognized death in these protests was recorded in La Güinera (Arroyo Naranjo), where a man was shot dead by a police officer, recalls EFE.
Faced with this, legislators from several Latin American countries have endorsed with their signature a letter addressed to the European Commission asking it to suspend the cooperation agreement with Cuba with the argument that “Europe should not pay for repression.”
The legislative caucus of the Republican Party of Chile has now joined the campaign, following in the footsteps of other parliamentarians from conservative parties in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, according to what was reported this Thursday in Miami by the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, which is a platform of Cuban opposition organizations inside and outside Cuba. He indicated that senator Rojo Edwards and deputies Cristóbal Urruticoechea, Chiara Barchiesi, Gloria Naveillán, Benjamín Moreno, Johannes Kaiser, Gonzalo de la Carrera, Cristián Araya, Luis Fernando Sánchez, José Carlos Meza, Agustín Romero, signed for the Republican Party of Chile. Stephan Schubert and Benjamin Moreno.
Of the 129 processed, 128 were found guilty of crimes of sedition and theft; two of these, Dayron Martín Rodríguez and Miguel Páez Estiven, received sentences of 30 years in prison, the court statement added.
According to the statement, both groups (referring to the two neighborhoods) turned vehicles and patrol cars and threw stones, bottles and Molotov cocktails at Police facilities and agents of the Ministry of the Interior, which caused “injuries to other people and serious material damage.” .
The Government reported on January 25 that 790 people, including 55 under 18 years of age, were prosecuted for the July demonstrations. And another 172 had been convicted so far.
But according to Justice 11J, a Cuban group that keeps track of cases, there were 1,442 people detained, of which 756 are still in jail.
The demonstrations of July 2021 were historic, since they broke out in nearly 50 Cuban cities with the cry of “Freedom” and “We are hungry.”
Laritza Diversent, director of the Miami-based human rights organization Cubalex, told the AFP that the sentences that were known on Wednesday “they generate that exemplary effect on the rest of society, taking into account that Havana is one of the most difficult provinces to govern” and where there were more protests and arrests during the outbreak of July.
The activist criticized the sentences for “the crime of sedition, when we know that the protests were completely spontaneous and that in any demonstration harangues to others and asking people to join are normal (…). That in no case should be qualified as sedition.”
The Cuban government has blamed the United States for being behind the July 11 demonstrations, the largest protests that have occurred on the island since the triumph of the revolution in 1959.
For its part, Washington has insistently requested the release of these prisoners.
“As the regime in #Cuba puts dozens more #11 protesters on unfair charges this week, we know harsh sentences are being used to put Cubans in fear,” the US Embassy in Havana wrote on Twitter on Monday. . (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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