MIAMI, United States. – Cuban journalist and activist Carlos Michael Morales Rodríguez, also promoter of the citizen campaign Cuba Decidescontinues to be the object of persecution and harassment by the island’s regime, according to a statement from the Complaints Center of the Foundation for Pan American Democracy issued this January 6 and sent to CubaNet.
Despite having complied with a sanction of “correctional work without confinement,” the authorities have arbitrarily extended his sentence, in what is considered a repressive strategy to silence his work.
The 48-year-old journalist was arrested for the first time on July 12, 2021 after peacefully participating in the 11J protests. Accused of “public disorder,” Morales faced a trial lacking procedural guarantees that culminated in a sentence of two years and 10 months in prison, according to the Complaint Center of the Foundation for Pan American Democracy. During that time, he was transferred to four different prisons: La Pendiente, Manacas, Guamajal and El Pre de Santa Clara, where he suffered inhumane detention conditions. He was released on March 6, 2024, but his freedom did not mean an end to the harassment.
On May 3, 2024, Morales was arrested again and put on trial in the Santa Clara Municipal Court, which on July 22 sentenced him to eight months of “correctional labor without confinement” on the charge of “disobedience.” The Foundation for Pan American Democracy described this accusation as unfounded and a tool of the regime to maintain control over activists. “These measures lack solid legal foundations and are part of the systematic harassment directed at dissidents on the island,” the organization noted.
Morales’ health has suffered a notable deterioration as a result of prison conditions and the hunger strikes he has carried out in protest against the regime. According to the statement, on September 7, 2024, a cardiologist diagnosed that he suffers from mitral insufficiency and ventricular hypertrophy, diseases resulting from physical weakening after prolonged strikes and the lack of adequate medical care during his imprisonment.
Although Morales was due to complete his sanction on January 3, 2025, until January 5 he had not received official notification of his compliance. In a telephone call made on December 12, 2024, a State Security officer identified as “Henry” informed him that the court would accept another type of work in the private sector, but that the sanction would be extended for six more months, until July 2025.
The Complaints Center of the Foundation for Pan American Democracy denounced that this arbitrary extension “is an extremely repressive measure whose objective is to provide the Political Police with a tool to imprison him at any time without the need to initiate a new judicial process.”
Faced with this situation, Morales has launched a campaign on social networks and the media to demand an end to his sanction and denounce the constant harassment. Among their demands is official notification confirming compliance with the initial sanction, which has expired since January 3, 2025. “The international community cannot remain indifferent to these serious human rights violations,” said the Foundation for Democracy. Panamericana, which currently processing a precautionary measure of protection before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
