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Cubalex and Amnesty International announce a live broadcast for next Monday, May 11 titled "Deferred Freedom: Selective Releases and Harassment of Political Prisoners," in which they will analyze the critical human rights situation in Cuba.
The event will be broadcast at 9 AM Mexico time, 11 AM in Havana, Miami, and Washington, and 5 PM in Madrid, via the Facebook and YouTube platforms of Mario J. Pentón and Cubalex, who will also moderate the meeting.
Participants include Laritza Diversent, director of Cubalex; Johanna Cilano Pelaez, Caribbean regional researcher for Amnesty International; Anamely Ramos, member of the Observatory of Cultural Rights; and Yanelys Nuñez, coordinator of the Museum of Dissent.
Both organizations warn that the conditional release processes promoted by the Cuban government have not put an end to repression. According to their statement, "an alarming increase in harassment against detainees and their families has been documented."
Among the central themes of the event is the opacity of the system: how conditional releases are used as a tool for political control and not as an act of justice, something that Cuban activists have denounced repeatedly.
The increase in harassment through threats, transfers, isolation, and denial of benefits will also be addressed, as well as the punishment of families who demand medical attention for their loved ones.
Cubalex and Amnesty International are raising alarms about the severe deterioration in the health of prominent figures such as Sayli Navarro Álvarez, Félix Navarro, Loreto Hernández García, Donaida Pérez Paseiro, Roberto Pérez Fonseca, Maykel Castillo Pérez (“Maykel Osorbo”) and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, all recognized by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience.
Sayli Navarro, an activist of the Damas de Blanco arrested on July 11, 2021, and sentenced to seven years for "sedition," was transferred in April 2026 to a prison hospital due to kidney complications, without authorization for surgery. Her father, Félix Navarro, sentenced to six years, suffers from high blood pressure and heart issues, with episodes of tachycardia reported in 2025 and 2026.
The People's Supreme Court of Havana also rejected a Habeas Corpus petition filed by Cubalex on behalf of Otero Alcántara, confirming his sentence until July 9, 2026. Maykel Osorbo, on the other hand, was transferred to Kilo 8 prison in Pinar del Río at the end of January 2026 and has been incarcerated since 2021.
The event occurs following the opaque announcement of a mass pardon for 2,010 individuals in April 2026, without official lists or guarantees of full freedom. Amnesty International described the measures as "opaque, discretionary, and without guarantees of full freedom," and warned that none of the named prisoners of conscience had been released by that date.
This pattern is not new. In January 2025, following negotiations with the United States and mediation from the Vatican, the regime announced the release of 553 individuals, but Cubalex verified that only 205 had political sanctions, at least seven were returned to prison, and one was forced into exile. The organization has documented that approximately 70% of political releases between 2010 and 2025 were negotiated privately with mediators, in exchange for silence or exile.
According to the real numbers behind political prisoners in Cuba, the organization Prisoners Defenders reported 1,042 confirmed political prisoners as of March 31, 2026, including 29 women and 44 minors. Other independent organizations estimate the number to be more than 750 people imprisoned for political reasons.
Cubalex and Amnesty International reiterate their call to the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel "for the immediate and unconditional release of all individuals imprisoned for exercising their fundamental rights," in a context where the Cuban regime explicitly acknowledges the existence of political prisoners but refuses to release them unconditionally.
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