Related videos:
Mike Hammer, mission chief of the United States Embassy in Cuba, visited this Friday San Antonio de los Baños —considered the birthplace of the 11J as it was the first place where the historic protests of July 11, 2021, erupted— to meet with opposition activists and the families of political prisoners, in a visit documented and shared by the Embassy on Facebook.
In the meeting, the activists Carlos Manuel Pupo Rodríguez and Jorge Omar Lorenzo Pimienta participated, described by the Embassy as "patriots committed to advancing a better future for Cuba," and Angélica Ramírez, mother of Denis Hernández Ramírez, a political prisoner from the July 11 protests who remains incarcerated.
In the video, Hammer conveys Washington's support directly to the mother: "Mr. Trump and Secretary Rubio are insisting that all political prisoners be released and that visibility is given to young people like your son who are unjustly imprisoned."
The Embassy emphasized in its post that "the United States will continue to call for the release of all political prisoners," tagging the message with the hashtags #todos and #ConCubanosDeApie.
Denis Hernández Ramírez was sentenced to six years in prison for contempt and public disorder after participating in the protests on July 11 and 12, 2021, in that same locality.
He had been released in January 2025 as part of the agreement between the Cuban government and the Vatican, which included the release of 553 people, but his parole was revoked on March 25, 2026 after he posted on social media complaints about surveillance, harassment, and threats from State Security.
His case was documented as the seventh of a 11J ex-prisoner returned to prison since January 2025, in a pattern that the regime has repeated with other protesters who dared to continue speaking out after regaining their freedom.
Pupo Rodríguez and Lorenzo Pimienta, with whom Hammer also met, are co-founders of the Emilia Project, an opposition initiative established in 2013 alongside the renowned dissident Oscar Elías Biscet.
The visit to San Antonio de los Baños is part of a systematic approach by the diplomat, who since taking office on November 14, 2024, has made direct contact with opponents and families of political prisoners one of the hallmarks of his administration.
In the past, State Security has even detained opposition members to prevent them from meeting with him, highlighting the level of discomfort that these visits cause to the regime.
Hammer has also met with the opposition figure Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez," the activist Manuel Cuesta Morúa, and the Cardinal of Havana, always with the issue of political prisoners as the central theme of his efforts.
In April 2026, there were over 1,200 political prisoners documented in Cuba, while President Miguel Díaz-Canel denied their existence to the international media, a contradiction that visits like the one this Friday in San Antonio de los Baños aim to make increasingly difficult to sustain.
Filed under: