Havana/The Cuban Government released this Sunday the opposition member Tania Echevarría Menéndez, who was serving a six-year prison sentence for participating in the protests in July 2021 (11J), reported the group Ladies in White, of which she is an activist.
“Tania Echevarría Ménéndez is already home, she is the first Lady in White to be released from prison,” wrote the leader of that women’s movement, Berta Soler, on her Facebook profile.
Soler pointed out that there are three other members of the Ladies in White collective to be released: Sissi Abascal, Sayli Navarro and Aymara Nieto.
Soler pointed out that there are three other members of the Damas de Blanco collective to be released: Sissi Abascal, Sayli Navarro and Aymara Nieto
Sayli Navarro, recognized as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International (AI), was arrested after the anti-government protests of July 11, 2021, along with her father, the historic opponent Félix Navarrowho was released this Saturday.
On this day, Adán Kiubel Castillo Echevarria, Yarelis Mesa Vázquez, Rolando López Rodríguez, Santiago Vázquez León, José Antonio Gómez León, Yoennis Domínguez de la Rosa and Adel de la Torre, all imprisoned in the context of the 11J demonstrations, have also been released. of 2021, according to reports from the NGO Justicia 11.
The Government of Cuba announced on Tuesday a gradual process of release of 553 prisoners shortly after Washington announced that it was excluding the Island from its list of terrorism sponsoring countries – a qualification with serious economic and financial consequences – in an agreement mediated by the Vatican.
The Cuban authorities began the process of releases –which do not imply the extinction of the sentence– one day later.
Among those released are prisoners of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer and Luis Roblesor the trans protester Brenda Díaz, another participant in the 11J protests, who was serving a sentence of 14 years and seven months for public disorder, sabotage and contempt.
So far, around a hundred people considered prisoners for political reasons have been released from prison, according to different human rights NGOs.
The Cuban Government has not made public the list of the 553 people that it announced it would progressively release, but it has acknowledged that, as of Thursday, a total of 127 of them have received some type of benefit extrapenal.
Maricela Sosa confirmed that, if they do not meet some requirements until the expiration of their sentence, such as “good conduct”, “they can return to prison”
The vice president of the Supreme People’s Court (TSP) of Cuba, Maricela Sosa, confirmed that these people have not been pardoned or amnestied and that, if they do not meet some requirements until the expiration of their sentence, such as “good conduct,” They can go back to prison.”
Compared to the 553 people that the Cuban authorities are going to release, the NGO Prisoners Defenders registered a total of 1,161 prisoners for political reasons in Cuba at the end of 2024, and Justicia 11J estimates that 549 9/11 protesters were convicted.
This is the first release of prisoners in Cuba since 2019, when authorities pardoned 2,604 inmates. The previous one occurred in 2015, when a total of 3,522 prisoners were released as a “humanitarian gesture” before the visit of Pope Francis.
