The Republican congressman Mario Díaz-Balart published a video message on his X account this Wednesday, Cuba's Independence Day, in which he stated that "Cuba is neither independent nor free" and demanded the release of all political prisoners who remain in the regime's prisons.
"Hundreds and hundreds of political prisoners continue to suffer in the jails of that dictatorship," stated the legislator from Florida, who vowed that from the United States, "we will continue to fight alongside that brave Cuban people" until "freedom, democracy, and the sovereignty of Cuba" return.
Díaz-Balart named three prisoners whom he referred to as "heroes": Maykel Osorbo and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, both from the San Isidro Movement, and the teenager Jonathan David Muir Burgos, who is 16 years old.
According to the congressman, the only crime of these three men is "fighting peacefully" and "demanding freedom and the sovereignty of the Cuban people."
Maykel Osorbo, co-author of "Patria y Vida," was arrested in May 2021 and sentenced to nine years in prison; in January 2026, he was transferred to the Kilo 8 maximum-security prison in Pinar del Río.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, founder of the San Isidro Movement, was arrested during the 11J protests of 2021 and sentenced to five years; he remains in the Guanajay prison in Artemisa, with his sentence expected to conclude in July 2026.
Jonathan David Muir Burgos was arrested on March 16, 2026, in Morón, Ciego de Ávila, during protests over power outages, charged with "sabotage" and detained in the high-security prison of Canaleta.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted him protective measures in April 2026 considering that his rights to life, personal integrity, and health are at risk of irreparable harm.
Díaz-Balart has called for the release of the minor multiple times since late April, warning that if anything happens to him, "the Castro regime will be responsible."
The congressman's message is part of a day on May 20 filled with coordinated political actions against the regime.
That same day, four Cuban-American congressmen demanded in the Capitol the formal charges against Raúl Castro for the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996, and the Department of Justice announced those federal charges in Miami.
At the same time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio published a video in Spanish in which he offered, on behalf of President Trump, a "new relationship" with Cuba and $100 million in humanitarian aid, conditional on it not being distributed by GAESA, the military-business conglomerate of the regime.
According to the organization Prisoners Defenders, there are over 1,250 documented political prisoners in Cuba as of May 2026.
"We do not forget them. Until all political prisoners are free and until freedom, democracy, and sovereignty return to Cuba, we will continue to fight alongside that brave Cuban people," concluded Díaz-Balart in his message.
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