Mass trials deepen repression of opposition in Cuba

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Detained protesters in Cuba are facing the biggest and most punitive mass trials on the island since the early days of the revolution and could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.

This week, Cuban prosecutors brought to trial more than 60 citizens accused of crimes, including subversion, for having participated in protests against the country’s economic crisis that took place in July last year. The information comes from human rights activists and family members of the detainees.

Among the people prosecuted are at least five minors, some as young as 16. They are among more than 620 detainees who are on trial or are due for trial for having participated in the biggest explosion of popular dissatisfaction with the Communist government since it came to power in 1959.

The seriousness of the criminal charges is part of a coordinated effort by the government to prevent further public expressions of discontent, activists said. And the repression dashed any remaining hopes of a gradual liberalization under the aegis of President Miguel Diáz-Canel, who in 2018 took the place of Fidel’s brother Raúl Castro to become the first Cuban leader from outside. of the Castro family since 1959.

“What reigns here is the empire of fear,” said Daniel Triana, a Cuban actor and activist who was briefly detained after the protests. “Here, repression does not kill directly, but forces people to choose between prison and exile.”

Cuba has lived for six decades under a punitive trade embargo imposed by the United States. The Cuban government has for years blamed the growing weakening of the national economy solely on Washington, diverting attention from the effects of Havana’s mismanagement and the rigid limitations it imposes on private enterprise.

Cuba exploded in an unexpected protest on July 11, as thousands of people, many from the country’s poorest districts, marched in cities large and small to denounce rampant inflation, power cuts and a growing shortage of food and medicine. .

Shared widely on social media, the scenes of mass popular dissatisfaction completely belied the idea promoted by the Cuban leadership that the population continues to firmly support the Communist Party, despite economic difficulties.

Initially taken by surprise, the government later reacted with the biggest crackdown in decades, sending in military units to crush the protests. More than 1,300 protesters were detained, according to the human rights organization Cubalex and the Justice J11 entity, which brings together Cuban civil society organizations and monitors what happened after the protests.

The Cuban government did not respond to requests for comment sent through the Foreign Press Department.

The scale of the government’s reaction shocked opposition figures and veteran Cuba observers.

Cuban leaders have always reacted promptly to any public dissatisfaction, arresting protesters and cracking down on dissent. But previous waves of repression have tended to be concentrated against relatively small groups of political activists.

In contrast, historians and activists say, the mass trials that began in December are, for the first time in decades, aimed at people who in most cases had no previous involvement in politics before leaving their homes to join the crowds. who demanded transformations.

“This is something completely new here,” commented Cuban dissident Martha Beatriz Roque, who in 2003 was convicted of subversion, along with 74 other activists, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. His sentence and that of the other detainees were eventually commuted, and most were able to go into exile.

“There’s not a single drop of compassion left, and that’s what makes the difference” from the past, she said, speaking on the phone from her home in Havana.

Welder Yosvany García, 33, had never participated in a protest or been in trouble with the law, according to his wife, Mailin Rodríguez. On July 11, as usual, he left his workshop in the provincial capital of Holguín to have lunch at home.

But on his way back to work, García ran into a crowd demanding political change, his wife said. Driven by a feeling of indignation at the unsustainable cost of living, García joined the march.

He was beaten by the police, who broke up the demonstration later that day, but returned home that night. Four days later, he was surrounded by police near his home and taken to jail.

On Wednesday (12) García was criminally accused of subversion, along with 20 other protesters. Among the accused are five teenagers between the ages of 17 and 16, the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Cuba. All face sentences of up to five years in prison; García can be sentenced to up to 30 years.

Rowland Castillo was 17 in July when he was arrested for taking part in a protest in a working-class suburb of Havana. Provincial champion of wrestling, one of Cuba’s most popular sports, Castillo attended a public sports academy and, according to his mother, Yudinela Castro, had never participated in political activities.

Castro said he only learned that his son had taken part in the demonstration when police arrived to arrest him a few days later. Prosecutors want him to receive a 23-year prison sentence for subversion.

The arrival to the presidency of Díaz-Canel, in 2018, at first raised hopes in some sectors that there could be gradual changes in the country.

Diáz-Canel was not part of the old guard that came to power with the Castro brothers. President, he tried to clean up the complicated Cuban monetary system and launched reforms to expand the private sector, in an effort to ease the severe economic crisis caused by the pandemic, the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration and the decrease in assistance received from Venezuela, Cuba’s socialist ally. .

But Díaz-Canel, born after the revolution, could not invoke the Castro brothers’ anti-imperialist struggle to justify the steady decline in Cuban living standards. When the protests erupted, he reacted strongly.

“They have no intention of changing,” said Salomé García, an activist with the human rights group Justice J11. “They do not intend to let Cuban society have any part in determining its destiny.”

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