Havana/Human Rights Watch (HRW) hardly stops to qualify in its annual report on Cuba referring to 2025, published this wednesdaysomething that contrasts with the harshness with which it treats other governments, such as Donald Trump’s American government, in its world report, also issued today.
In the document on the Island, the organization highlights, in a sober tone, that the Cuban Government “continues to repress and punish dissent and public criticism” and that “many of the participants in the historic demonstrations of July 2021 remain detained,” while protests persist due to prolonged power outages, the deterioration of living conditions and the high cost of the internet. At no time is the Havana regime condemned.
The text states, based on data from NGOs such as Cubalex or Prisoners Defenders, that at least 203 people were arbitrarily detained between January and June 2025, and that as of October, the country had nearly 700 political prisoners. Likewise, HRW cites Justice 11J to point out that 359 people related to the 11J protests remained in prison, with sentences of up to 22 years, without adding information that reveals an investigation or own assessment of what is happening on the ground.
The report mentions the sentences that the artists Maykel Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara continue to serve and the “redetentions” of José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro
The report mentions the sentences that artists Maykel Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara continue to serve and the “rearrests” in April 2025 of José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro, four months after being released as part of a negotiation with the Vatican and the United States. Many of those released later suffered harassment and surveillance by State Security.
Although it avoids describing the system as a one-party dictatorship that has monopolized power since 1959 and opts for flat rhetoric, Human Rights Watch does describe abuses, harassment of families of political prisoners, solitary confinement and mistreatment of detainees.
Its language contrasts with that used in the same report for countries such as the “authoritarian drift” with which it describes Nicaragua or “crimes against humanity” with regard to Venezuela, although in the latter case it is the statement of a third party.
The report indicates that the worsening economic crisis has undermined the population’s access to food, health care and electricity, with cuts of up to 20 hours a day and rationing that leaves seven out of ten Cubans skipping daily meals. Also, the inhabitants of the Island continue to flee the country in large numbers, 10% of the population according to official figures.
HRW mentions the crisis and, in short, makes a descriptive compilation, but deliberately ignores the systemic collapse that leads to tyranny.
The photograph that heads the text shows a man of about 60 years old who covers his face so as not to be recognized. His mask is a dirty piece of corrugated cardboard that reads: “Please, something to eat.”
