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The Panama Ministry of Foreign Affairs held an update meeting last Wednesday with the families of the seven Panamanian citizens who are still detained in Cuba, aiming to coordinate the diplomatic efforts necessary for their return to the country.
During the meeting, Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha spoke with Evelyn Castro, one of the three Panamanians released on April 25, whose testimony is considered crucial for the Panamanian authorities in their efforts for mediation and consular assistance towards the Cuban regime.
Castro publicly thanked the chancellor and the consular team for their efforts that facilitated his release, along with two other compatriots: Cinthia del Carmen Camarena and Abigail Sthefany Gudiño.
The three women were released under the legal provisions of "effective collaborator" and "criteria of opportunity," and returned to Panama via Tocumen International Airport on the same day.
Martínez-Acha described that release as "a gesture of friendship" from the Cuban government, although Panama continues negotiations to free the seven citizens who are still held at Villa Marista, the headquarters of the Cuban State Security and a known detention center for political prisoners.
The seven Panamanians who remain detained are Víctor Manuel Pinzón Cedeño, Anthony Williams Jules Pérez, Omar Gilberto Urriola Vergara, Maykol Jesús Pérez Almendra, Adalberto Antonio Navarro Asprilla, Patrochiny Jerodany Joseph Arisarena, and José Luis Aguirre Baruco.
The case originated on February 28, 2026, when ten Panamanian citizens were arrested in Havana, in the neighborhoods of Boyeros and Jaimanitas, accused by the Cuban Ministry of the Interior of producing and placing anti-government posters signed by the CDPC (Path to Peaceful Democracy in Cuba).
Among the messages on the posters were phrases such as "Down with tyranny" and "We trust Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Mike Hammer."
The detainees face charges under Article 124 of the Cuban Penal Code, which classifies propaganda against the constitutional order with penalties of up to eight years in prison.
The Cuban opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer from UNPACU provided an alternative version, noting that Panamanians were also distributing humanitarian aid—food and medicine—for political prisoners in Matanzas.
Since the beginning of the case, the Panamanian president José Raúl Mulino instructed a discreet negotiation strategy combined with ongoing consular assistance.
The ambassador Edwin Pitty met with the ten detainees at Villa Marista in March, and Foreign Minister Martínez-Acha himself traveled to Cuba on March 25, where he met with President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, and visited the detainees, confirming that they were receiving humane treatment.
The gradual release of the three women suggests that the Cuban regime is willing to negotiate in stages, although the seven remaining men are facing legal proceedings that Panama continues to handle discreetly with Havana.
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