Madrid Spain.- “The United States is deeply concerned about the continued harsh sentences of political protesters in Cuba,” begins the release press released Thursday by US State Department spokesman Ned Price.
The northern nation once again condemned the Cuban regime for detaining more than 700 participants in the anti-government protests of July 11, 2021 that spread throughout Cuba with the aim of “criticizing the Government’s breach of their human rights and fundamental freedoms ”.
“Hundreds of protesters are languishing in prisons on arbitrary charges for having criticized the regime and its leaders. Despite video and photographic evidence to the contrary, the Cuban government attempts to justify its draconian arrests, prosecutions, and sentences by falsely claiming that the protests were largely violent. The current class of political prisoners is made up of Cubans from all over Cuba and from all professions,” the statement states.
The text also denounces that state prosecutors chose as an example the protesters from the impoverished Havana neighborhoods of La Güinera and 10 de Octubre, with a considerable Afro-Cuban population, accusing them of sedition and handing down the harshest sentences, of up to 26 years in prison.
As well as condemning the continuous harassment, arrests and threats to the mothers of the detained protesters who dare to speak publicly about their children.
He also stressed that these injustices have clear objectives: to prevent Cuban citizens from asserting their rights and to create fear of reprisals.
“The Cuban government must allow its people to freely express their hopes and aspirations, instead of governing through fear and intimidation,” the document concludes.
This week the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinkendemanded the release of all the prisoners for the 11J demonstrations.
In a post on Twitter, Blinken recalled that “the Cuban regime has sentenced more than 550 protesters to more than 4,000 combined years in prison or other punitive measures since the historic protests of July 11, 2021.”
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