MIAMI, United States. – Amnesty International declared This Tuesday, activists and protesters Félix Navarro, Sayli Navarro, Luis Robles and Roberto Pérez Fonseca are prisoners of conscience. The organization indicated that his imprisonment responds to political reasons and is part of the repression unleashed by the authorities.
“These appointments are a recognition to the dozens of people who remain in prisons in Cuba for peacefully exercising their rights, to all those people who systematically live under surveillance, harassment and threat of criminalization,” said Ana Piquer, director of the Americas at Amnesty. International. Furthermore, he stressed that this act is a tribute to the bravery of Cubans who “overcome permanent and generalized repression and fight for their rights.”
Among those designated as prisoners of conscience, Félix Navarro stands out, a 71-year-old political opponent who has been imprisoned three times for political reasons. Founder of the “Pedro Luis Boitel” Party for Democracy, Navarro has dedicated more than 30 years to the fight for civil rights in Cuba. His first conviction was in 1992, accused of “enemy propaganda” for placing posters in his hometown. In 2003, he was one of the 75 opponents convicted during the call Black Spring. At that time, Amnesty International already declared him a prisoner of conscience, and he was released in 2011 after eight years in prison.
Navarro was arrested again in July 2021 during the massive 9/11 protests. He and his daughter, Sayli Navarro, were violently detained when they went to the Perico National Revolutionary Police (PNR) station, in Matanzas, to find out about the situation of members of their movement who had been arrested the day before. In March 2022, Félix was sentenced to nine years in prison, while Sayli, co-founder of the Ladies in White and activist since her youth, was sentenced to eight years.
Sayli has faced repression from an early age due to her father’s political militancy. In 2010, she was expelled from the university for her “counterrevolutionary ties.” Over the years, she has been arbitrarily detained and subjected to interrogations and threats by Cuban authorities in an attempt to curb her activism.
Another of those named as a prisoner of conscience is Luis Robles Elizástiguithe 32-year-old Cuban who was arrested in December 2020 for peacefully demonstrating on San Rafael Boulevard, in Havana. Robles held a sign calling for “Freedom,” “No+Repression,” and demanding the release of rapper Denis Solís, who had been imprisoned shortly before. His arrest was immediate, and in March 2022 he was sentenced to four years and six months in prison for the crimes of “enemy propaganda” and “disobedience.”
Roberto Pérez Fonseca, 41, was also sentenced to 10 years in prison in October 2021 for participating in the July 11 protests. Accused of “contempt”, “attack”, “public disorder” and “instigation to commit a crime”, his case has been denounced as arbitrary by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, which stressed that Pérez Fonseca was only exercising his right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
Amnesty International framed these appointments in a broader context of repression in Cuba. According to the organization, Cuban authorities have intensified harassment and threats against activists, journalists and human rights defenders in recent weeks. “The Cuban State seems to want to destroy all capacity for resistance in Cuban society,” Ana Piquer warned. This new wave of repression has included arbitrary arrests, threats of criminalization and denial of prison rights to many of those imprisoned.
Independent media such as CubaNet, The Touch and Neighborhood Journalism They have reported that their collaborators have been repeatedly summoned by State Security agents and threatened with charges of “mercenarism.” In addition, several activists have reported being forced to sign statements of self-incrimination or to publicly renounce collaborating with independent media.
Amnesty International also highlighted the deteriorating health of other prisoners of conscience, such as Loreto Hernández, Pedro Albert and José Daniel Ferrer, who have suffered ill-treatment in prison. The organization also denounced the continued harassment against figures such as the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, and the journalist Carlos Michael Morales.
