MADRID, Spain.- July 2024 was the most repressive month in Cuba since the Cubalex Legal Advisory Center began recording and publishing monthly reports on human rights violations. The organization’s most recent report, presented this week, notes that the Cuban regime’s repressive deployment in the days leading up to the third anniversary of the social outbreak of July 11, 2021 (11J) was one of the key factors in the increase in repression.
During July, the Cubalex monitoring team document a total of 423 repressive acts, making it the month with the most such events since reports began to be published in August 2022. In particular, between July 8 and 12, coinciding with the dates close to the anniversary of the mass protests, 160 harassment events were recorded, representing more than a third of the total incidents reported throughout the month.
1/ 🛑 Informe Mensual de Cubalex: Julio 2024
El despliegue represivo y selectivo del régimen cubano en los días cercanos al tercer aniversario del estallido social del 11 de julio convirtió este mes en el más represivo registrado, según nuestros datos. pic.twitter.com/D7yO9n8ABB— Cubalex (@CubalexDDHH) August 13, 2024
The most frequent violations included attacks against persons deprived of liberty, with 140 incidents, followed by surveillance operations (96), internal mobility restrictions (65), transfers to and within detention centers (59), threats or coercion (59), violence or harassment (58), arbitrary detentions (56), selective cutting of communications (52) and arbitrary summons (36).
The most affected provinces were Havana, Matanzas and Villa Clara.
In total, 266 people were victims of some form of repression, including 77 women and 189 men. Among those who suffered the most violations during the month were journalist Yunia Figueredo and political prisoners. Carlos Michael Morales Rodríguez and Maikel Puig Bergolla. In addition, organizations such as the Ladies in White, the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), Cuba Decide and the Movement of Opponents for a New Republic (MONR) were particularly affected by state harassment, although a considerable number of the victims were not affiliated with any organization.
Cubalex also noted an increase in repression within prisons, with forced transfers, violence and a worrying lack of medical care, which aggravates the already tense human rights situation on the island.
In this regard, last week the organization exposed the worrying situation in Cuban prisons, where international standards established by the Mandela Rules are not met.
The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Mandela Rules, state that prisoners They must be treated with humanity and dignity, prohibiting torture and any cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. These rules specify that solitary confinement should not last more than 15 consecutive days and should be used only in exceptional cases, under independent review and never as a punishment. However, in Cuba, the Law on the Execution of Penalties allows solitary confinement for up to three months, which contradicts these international standards, the human rights organization says.
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