Cuban regime rejects appeal of five protesters from Caimanera.

A Cuban court rejected the appeal of five demonstrators from Caimanera, Guantánamo, who were sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to eight years for their participation in the 2023 protests.

According to the EFE agency, the dismissals, confirmed on Tuesday, add to a long list decided by the regime following the protests that have shaken the country in recent years.

In May of the mentioned year, the youth marched through the streets of Caimanera, a town adjacent to the United States naval base, shouting "Freedom" and demanding better living conditions.

Cuban authorities initially dismissed the protest, claiming it was an act of "indiscipline" caused by people under the influence of alcohol. However, the subsequent sentences were severe, with accusations of public disorder, incitement to commit crimes, and violence.

Giselle Morfi, head of the legal team at Cubalex, a human rights NGO based in Miami, United States, confirmed that the appeal was dismissed and that the original sentences, which range from two to eight years, will be upheld.

Now, as the next step, the incarcerated, all men, could still resort to a special review procedure before the Supreme Court or the Ministry of Justice.

Victoria Martínez, mother of two of the sentenced, denounced the harsh conditions facing the people of Caimanera, where the economic crisis has worsened since the protests, the mentioned media outlet reported.

"The situation in Caimanera is really terrible," he stated, describing daily power outages and a severe food shortage. These difficulties are part of a national economic crisis that includes a lack of medicine and fuel, exacerbated by the financial collapse that Cuba has been experiencing for three decades.

In 2023, the Municipal People's Court of Niceto Pérez sentenced Daniel Álvarez González to eight years in prison, one year less than requested by the Prosecutor's Office, on charges of instigation to commit a crime and public disorder.

Luis Miguel Alarcón Martínez and Freddy Sarquis González received seven and five years in prison, respectively, for the same crimes.

For his part, Rodolfo Álvarez González was sentenced to four years in prison for public disorder, while Felipe Octavio Correa Martínez received a two-year prison sentence for the crime of assault.

Yandri Pelier Matos was acquitted after the testimony of defense witnesses proved his non-involvement in the protest.

The sentences from Caimanera are part of a broader strategy by the Cuban government to silence popular discontent. The authorities had already sentenced around 500 people for their participation in the historic protests of July 11, 2021, in which thousands of Cubans took to the streets across the island to demand freedoms and social improvements.

Human rights organizations such as Justicia11J, based in Mexico, have documented over 1,500 arrests related to those protests, with 607 people still in prison and dozens convicted of the crime of sedition, a politically motivated charge used to suppress dissent.

This rejection of the appeals reinforces the perception that the Cuban regime is determined to avoid future protests, using the sentences as a warning to the population.