Two of them, Ana Ibis Tristá and Jarol Varona Agüero had been acquitted “due to insufficiency of evidence.” However, the regime held a new trial and condemned them.
Miami, United States. – The Chamber of Crimes against State Security of the Provincial Court of Santiago de Cuba imposed 14 years in prison on Cuban Ana Ibis Tristá Padilla for “propaganda against the constitutional order” and “of other acts against state security”, in accordance with a sentence to which the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH).
In the same process, the Court sanctioned Jarol Varona Agüero at 13 years for the crime of “other acts against state security”, and for “propaganda against constitutional order” to Félix Daniel Pérez Ruiz (five years) and Cristhian de Jesús Peña Aguilera (four years).
According to the OCDH, Tristá Padilla – 36 -year -old, and wife of the 11J Damián de Jesús Echavarría – was notified of the penalty on September 19 and, in that act, detained and transferred to the prison of Las Tunas. The Observatory recalls that, in a prior trial for the same facts, the defendant had been acquitted “due to the insufficiency of evidence.”
The turn in the case occurred after the appeal of the prosecutor Adam Vicente Santos against the judgment issued on November 24, 2024 by the same Crimes Chamber against the Security of the State of Santiago de Cuba, which had acquitted Tristá Padilla and Varona Agüero.
The appeal prospered on May 21, 2025, when the Chamber of Crimes against Security of the Supreme Court annulled that decision and ordered a new trial, according to the OCDH note based on the file.
The judicial document places the origin of the case in publications and calls disseminated in social networks. The sentence refers that, on May 7, 2023, Pérez Ruiz published on his Facebook profile a critical message against the government and called to share it, in addition to calling a march on May 14, at 10:00 am, in Vicente García Park, of Las Tunas, with white throbons. The march was not held by police intervention.
That same day, Peña Aguilera shared the Post In their own profile and, the next day, both met with Tristá Padilla, who, always according to the aforementioned ruling, advised them on how to win followers to spread the call. Pérez Ruiz and Peña Aguilera were arrested on May 9, 2023.
In relation to Varona Agüero, the sentence – according to the OCDH – states that, days before November 7, 2023, Tristá Padilla put him in the Internet with an organization abroad called self -defense of the people (ADP). Once willing to act, the ADP would have indicated to make Molotov cocktails and launch them against a building of the Ministry of Interior in Las Tunas.
The first court, however, had concluded that the accusatory thesis “could not be made against Tristá Padilla and Varona Agüero, and that” nothing material related to the evidence of terrorist acts was occupied, say substances, planes or containers suitable for it. “
The absolutory failure of 2024, also cited by the OCDH, described the tests valued without finding solid support for the accusation: minutes of occupation of telephones and accessories, certifications of Etecsa on the line linked to the accused, registers of calls and recharges, and bank certifications with “barely without balance”. In that first pronouncement, the Court had condemned Pérez Ruiz and Peña Aguilera – respectively – for “criticizing the Facebook regime” and “activating the option to share.”
The new court, on the other hand, assigned Tristá Padilla an active role in social networks: from it states that “it has maintained an active position on social networks in order to discredit the economic political process in Cuba.” After the cancellation by the Supreme Court and the repetition of the trial, this appreciation resulted in the 14 -year penalty for the defendant and in 13 years for Varona Agüero, in addition to confirming the sanctions to Pérez Ruiz and Peña Aguilera.
In its note, OCDH attributes the final decision to the weight granted by the second court to testimonies of officers and intelligence reports, and frames the case in the criminalization of the exercise of freedom of expression and demonstration, extreme that this medium constitutes exclusively as valuation of that entity, based on the judicial documentation that claims to have consulted.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights – non -profit organization founded in Madrid in 2009 – is mainly integrated by exprisioneros of consciousness of the consciousness of the Group of 75members of the Blanco ladies and other Cuban activists.
