Madrid/Four people have just been sanctioned by Cuban courts for their criticisms of the government through Facebook, He denounced on Tuesday The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), which had access to the sentence. Two of the convicted had been acquitted months ago for not being evidence against them, but, after an appeal of the Prosecutor’s Office, the Supreme Court annulled the sentence and ordered to repeat the trial.
The greatest is Ana Ibis Trista Padilla, wife of the political prisoner of the 11j Damián de Jesús Echavarría, who has received a sentence of 14 years in prison for the crimes of propaganda against the constitutional order and “other acts against the security of the State.” The activist had summoned a peaceful protest that did not develop in a park of Las Tunas in 2023.
In the same case, the Court has imposed a penalty of 13 years to Jarol Varona Agüero, for the crime of “other acts against state security”, while smaller sanctions were reserved for Félix Daniel Pérez Ruiz (5 years) and Cristhian de Jesús Peña Aguilera (4 years), both for “propaganda against the constitutional order”.
On November 24, 2024, the trial was held in a court in Santiago de Cuba that – in January 2025– acquitted “due insufficiency of evidence” to Trista Padilla and Varona Agüero. The other two defendants received the same penalties that have been imposed today, Pérez Ruiz for “making criticism of the Facebook regime” and Peña Aguilera for “activating the sharing option.”
The other two defendants received the same penalties that have been imposed today, Pérez Ruiz for “making criticism of the Facebook regime” and Peña Aguilera for “activating the option to share”
The prosecutor, Adam Vicente Santos, appealed before the Supreme Court, whose crimes hall against state security annulled the sentence on May 21 and the new trial was held recently. According to the statement of the Observatory, Tristán Padilla was convened on September 19 to be notified of the decision and “in that same act was arrested and taken for prison in Las Tunas”, where it is originally.
The story of the proven events indicates that on May 7, 2023 Félix Daniel Pérez Ruiz published on his Facebook profile a critical message with the government in which he called other users to share their publication and summoned a march dresses in Blanco on May 14 at 10:00 in the morning in the Vicente García Park, of Las Tunas. The act, however, was never celebrated by police intervention.
Cristhian de Jesús Peña Aguilera, friend of Pérez Ruiz, shared the publication, while Ana Ibis Trista Padilla contacted them and held a meeting in a restaurant the next day. The sentence describes the Tunish activist as someone who “has maintained an active position on social networks in order to discredit the economic political process in Cuba.”
Following the story, Trista Padilla advised both young people about how they could win more followers and spread the call. The two were arrested on May 9, leaving the march in suspense.
At the beginning of November of the same year, the defendant communicated with Jarol Varona Agüero, “who also opposed the Cuban political system” and put him in touch with self -defense of the people (ADP) An organization that appears on the anti -terrorist list Approved by the Cuban regime in July under the epigraph of criminal entities or organizations based in the United States that organize, finance, provide media and execute actions against the security of the Cuban State. Supposedly, the defendant showed his interest in executing an action and received instructions to make Molotov cocktails and “launch them against a building of the Interior Ministry in Las Tunas.”
In the previous sentence it was determined that “nothing material related to evidence of terrorist acts was occupied, say substances, planes or containers suitable for it” and “the accusatory thesis” of the prosecutor is not allowed to specify. The judges took into account not only the statements of the defendants, who denied involvement with violent facts, but also minutes with which the content of their phones was certified and that there was nothing in them to imply them. The same happened with the bank certificate, which proved that their accounts had no balance.
All this, proven in the first instance, has been lying in the new trial, where they have prevailed, highlights the OCDH, the testimony of the officers and intelligence reports to support the accusation. “Independent witnesses or evidence are not mentioned that do not come from the state security apparatus. The ‘institutional reports’ about the links of the defendants with opposition groups are not transparent and their veracity cannot be verified,” the organization denounces.
“We are facing a process that criminalizes freedom of expression and manifestation, both rights interpreted as propaganda against constitutional order.”
The OCDH emphasizes that the testimonies have been used following repressive instructions to neutralize political dissent and that the connection with exiles – which is not proven – is used with the sole purpose of justifying repression and presenting those accused as agents of foreign interests. And he regrets: “We are facing a process that criminalizes freedom of expression and manifestation, both rights interpreted as propaganda against constitutional order.”
The NGO, based in Madrid, took advantage The time to point out that activist Alexander Verdecia Rodríguez, a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) in Granma, was arrested in February of this year and the prosecutor asks for 10 years in prison for fact similar to those of the case of Trista Padilla. The opponent is accused of “propaganda against the constitutional order” and “instigation to commit crimes” after having published criticism of the government on Facebook.
“Its process reflects the same irregularities: accusations without sufficient evidence and a political use of justice to punish freedom of expression. These cases show a pattern: in Cuba, comment on social networks can cost years in prison.”
