In an unusual gesture, Canada, which usually avoids antagonizing the government of Cuba, has joined the United States in condemning the harsh sentencing of Cubans who protested against the government last July, after judges handed down the first sedition sentences of up to 20 years in prison to 20 protesters earlier this week.
“Canada condemns #Cuba’s harsh sentencing following the July 2021 protests,” Canada’s Global Affair Ministry said on Twitter. “Canada strongly advocates for freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly free from intimidation. We stand with the people of Cuba in their aspiration for #democracy.”
The first sedition conviction came this week in the eastern city of Holguín, where 20 protesters, including five under age 18, were sentenced to penalties as severe as 20 years in prison, according to court documents obtained by the activist group Justicia 11J.
Despite the sentences being reduced due to international pressure, activists say, 12 protesters were sentenced to between 12 and 20 years. Among those convicted of sedition in Holguín is Jessica Lisbeth Torres Calvo, 27, a young mother who will be serving 15 years. Miguel Enrique Girón Velázquez, 24, was sentenced to 14 years. None could even say goodbye to their loved ones, said Salomé Garcia Bacallao, an activist with Justicia 11J.
Four 17-year-olds and one 16-year-old were sentenced to five years of “limitation of freedom,” a condition similar to house arrest. Prosecutors were requesting sentences between 15 and 18 years in prison.
The Canadian government usually avoids taking on Cuban authorities publicly, because Canadian companies have significant investments on the island, especially in nickel mining. Before the pandemic, millions of Canadian tourists traveled to the island every year.
After the islandwide demonstrations in July, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stopped short of condemning the crackdown. But, following attacks by conservatives, he quickly reversed and criticized the arrests of hundreds of protesters.
A flurry of tweets by U.S. diplomats and a statement by the Organization of American States this week kept pressing the Cuban government to release the imprisoned demonstrators.
On Wednesday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an OAS independent group, called on the Cuban government to “release all people being deprived of their freedom for participating in the protests, including both adolescents and adults, and to cease the practice of harassment and arrests in response to social protest or other related rights.”
The Cuban government acknowledged it has prosecuted more than 790 demonstrators, including 55 between the ages 16 and 18, and justified filing sedition charges, arguing that they “correspond to the level of violence shown in the vandalism” and other allegedly violent acts against Cuban security forces deployed by the government to quash the uprising.
But the Inter-American Commission said in its statement that some of the criminal charges against the protesters were “unspecified” and “disproportionate.”
“Similarly, information has been provided on violations of due process, such as the restriction of access to criminal records or copies of sentences and the absence of appropriate technical defense and contact with legal representatives,” the commission said.
The statement comes after the Cuban government released footage of the Holguín trial on state television and aired interviews with unnamed protesters and family members vowing to the legality of the proceedings and voicing regret. In contrast, many family members have shared their stories and documents with the media about violations of due process and other irregularities. But the government has said prosecutors have acted within the law, and top government officials have praised their work.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken; top diplomat for Latin America Brian Nichols, and the head of the U.S. Agency for Development, Samantha Power, all sent tweets this week calling on the Cuban government to release the protesters and putting the spotlight on Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, a leading member of the dissident San Isidro Movement who is reportedly on a hunger strike.
“Seven months after peacefully standing up for human rights and fundamental freedoms, @LMOAlcantara awaits a trial that never seems to come,” Blinken said Wednesday. “His family fears for his life as his health declines — we call on the Cuban government to release Luis and all those unjustly detained.”
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