Imminent Threat To Peaceful Protesters In Cuba

Civil society groups in Cuba have called for peaceful protests on 15 November, among other things, to demand the release of hundreds of people that were detained in the context of protests on 11 July.

Hundreds of people in different cities across the country presented signed petitions requesting local authorities’ permission to convene peaceful, organized protests.

Cuba’s government-run newspaper, the Granma, described the planned marches as “illicit” and designed to “destabilize” the country.

Authorities have created a web of control over freedom of expression and assembly for decades in Cuba, which criminalizes peaceful protest and imprisons and ill-treats Cubans from all walks of life solely for expressing their opinions.

On July 11, hundreds of people who participated in a largely peaceful protest that took place in various cities in Cuba were detained and imprisoned by government authorities. The authorities responded by detaining and criminalizing to different degrees nearly all those found to be protesting.

Following the protests, Amnesty International called on six prisoners of conscience to be immediately and unconditionally released. The organization also documented arbitrary detentions, violations of due process and incommunicado detention, as well as unlawful surveillance, ill-treatment, and internet interruptions carried out by the authorities, scaling up a machinery of control used for decades to target alternative thinkers, but amped up to a scale not seen in almost 20 years.

As of 10 November, hundreds of people remain in prison for peacefully expressing their views on the current human rights and economic situation in the country, according to Cubalex.