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More than 1,600 activists, human rights defenders, and political prisoners signed a call to demand the immediate release of over 1,000 political prisoners who remain in Cuban jails, many of them in precarious conditions and lacking due process guarantees.
The document, driven by the professor and activist Anamely Ramos, denounces that Cuba is “the great absentee” in the recent context of releases in Venezuela and Nicaragua, and warns that the Cuban regime could use prisoners as “bargaining chips” in potential international negotiations.
"State terror and sustained violence must cease," Ramos stated, emphasizing that the imprisonment of citizens for expressing their political views is a structural practice of the system.
According to lawyer Laritza Diversent from Cubalex, the number of arrests increased following the capture of the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, as State Security intensified arrests and forced disappearances.
65% of political prisoners are demonstrators from 11J, the peaceful protests of July 2021. Independent organizations warn that the regime has no intention of releasing them and that repression has intensified amid the economic crisis and the lack of freedoms on the island.
"Cuba has nothing to offer, except prisoners," warned Diversent, who urged the international community and the Vatican not to ignore the incarcerated in any negotiations with the regime in Havana.
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