A total of 14 defendants for going out on the street on July 11, 2021 in San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana, have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for crimes of public disorder, contempt, attack and instigation to commit a crime. According to EFE, which claims to have had access to the sentence, issued by the People’s Municipal Court of Arroyo Naranjo and dated September 30, two of them were given five years of correctional work without internment.
The judges determined among the proven facts that those sentenced, of whom the Spanish agency does not give the names, demonstrated in a “violent and aggressive” manner, that they threw stones at the policemen, and that they summoned more people to join, “fundamentally in social networks”, to “destabilize the Rule of Law and Social Justice”. In addition, the text indicates, “they shouted derogatory and offensive phrases and slogans” against President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
The Prosecutor’s Office had originally requested up to 14 years in prison, but, as in other trials for the peaceful protests of 11J, which have been carried out on the Island since the end of 2021 and which have been denounced as a “farce” by several international organizations, the courts slightly reduced the request.
About San Miguel del Padrón, specifically, they broadcast a report on state television, interviewing a man allegedly wounded by the stones who denounced having “suffered all kinds of shouting, of counterrevolutionary slogans.”
Immediately after that Sunday last year, the official media tried to discredit the demonstrations, calling them “riots” and the citizens, “criminals.” About San Miguel del Padrón, specifically, they broadcast a report on state televisioninterviewing an alleged wounded by the stones who reported having “suffered all kinds of shouting, counterrevolutionary slogans.”
In videos posted on social media, several youths were indeed seen throwing stones, but with their targets far out of reach.
Prisoners Defenders, in their latest report, published last October 10, figure in 739 sentenced prisoners, some of them up to 30 years in prison. In total, the Madrid-based NGO has verified 1,026 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Cuba. For its part, the independent media Inventory Project records about a hundred detainees since September 29.
Despite the repression, protests have continued on the islandin recent weeks, mainly due to scheduled power outages.
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