The political prisoner Saylí Navarro was sanctioned disciplinarily this past Sunday by the authorities of the La Bellotex women's prison in Matanzas, after reporting the beating her father, the political prisoner Félix Navarro, suffered in the Agüica prison in Colón, Matanzas province.
The complaint was made public by the Lady in White Sonia Álvarez Campillo, mother of Saylí and wife of Félix, who received the information directly from her daughter via telephone call.
"In a phone call, Saily informed me that on May 4 she was taken to the prison administration to be told that a disciplinary measure had been imposed on her for revealing the news of the beating that Yoslen Pedroso, the bloodthirsty one from Agüica prison, gave to her father Félix Navarro," reported Álvarez Campillo.
The penalty consists of reducing the sentence reduction for good behavior that he was entitled to: instead of a 60-day reduction, he will only receive a 30-day reduction.
"The penalty is that from the reduction they were supposed to apply of 60 days, they will only deduct one month. They will not deduct two months," the mother specified.
The aggression that led to the punishment occurred on April 8, when Major Yoslén Pedroso Sotolongo, head of Internal Order at Agüica prison, struck Félix Navarro, leaving visible marks on his face and body.
After the assault, the 72-year-old opposition member was placed in a punishment cell under total isolation.
Saylí learned about the events during an inter-prison visit with her father and shared the details in a phone call with Iván Hernández Carrillo, a family friend and former member of the Group of 75 from the Black Spring, which brought the accusation to public attention.
This is not the first time the regime has punished Saylí for exercising her right to report from prison.
His transition to a regime of minimum severity has been denied on three occasions for rejecting the ideological indoctrination of what is called "penal reeducation."
In 2022, she was threatened with transfer to a prison in Guantánamo and her phone was suspended for 15 days after reporting violations of due process.
In January 2025, his measure change was postponed for six months due to conducting a hunger strike in commemoration of 11J and for making public denunciations from prison.
Both father and daughter were arrested on July 12, 2021, in Perico, Matanzas, and sentenced in March 2022: Félix to nine years and Saylí to eight, for their participation in the protests on July 11, 2021.
Félix Navarro, founder of the Pedro Luis Boitel Democratic Party, was conditionally released on January 18, 2025, as part of an agreement between the Cuban regime, Washington, and the Vatican, but was re-arrested on April 29, 2025 accused of leaving his municipality without judicial authorization on seven occasions.
At the end of April 2026, the Auxiliary Bishop of Havana, Eloy Ricardo Domínguez Martínez, visited both prisoners and offered them exile as a way out; father and daughter rejected forced exile and refused to leave Cuba.
Amnesty International recognizes Saylí Navarro as a prisoner of conscience since October 2024 and has demanded her immediate release, as well as that of her father.
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