The philosopher and historian Alina Bárbara López Hernández commemorated the fifth anniversary of July 11, 2021, this Saturday with a message posted on Facebook from her house arrest in Matanzas, in which she described Miguel Díaz-Canel's regime as a "terrorist state against its own people" and demanded the release of Cuban political prisoners.
Along with the text, the activist shared a photograph of a handmade sign, hung on the gate of her own window, reading "July 11, 2026 / Long live Free Cuba / Freedom for political prisoners."
"The social outbreak of July 11 marked a turning point in the recent history of Cuba and in the lives of individuals and families," wrote López Hernández, who has been under house arrest for over a year without his trial taking place.
In her publication, the intellectual drew a direct line between the power transition from Fidel Castro to Raúl Castro—whom she attributed a "markedly anti-popular character"—and the repressive response of the summer of 2021, when the regime "shed its last disguise."
Regarding the five years that have passed since the protests, she was unequivocal: "Repression has only increased in response to the constant protests of an exploited and abandoned citizenry, which no longer asks solely for food, medicine, electricity, or water, but for freedom and rights."
López Hernández mocked the control operation that the regime deploys every year around July 11: "It is ridiculous the effort the Cuban government makes to prevent a new explosion from happening every 11J, while it cannot prevent its ongoing degradation and the steady march toward the abyss..."
He also recalled that the Cuban wars of independence began on different dates—October and February—to warn the authorities that their obsession with monitoring a single date is pointless: "When a people decides to achieve their freedom and dignity, any date will do..."
Finally, the professor reminded that in these five years the prisons have filled with Cubans unjustly punished and called for their immediate release.
"The cause of their freedom must be the guiding principle in the compass of social struggles. Today it is them; tomorrow any one of us, or our children, could be in their place," he emphasized.
Alina Bárbara is currently under house arrest since June 18, 2024, accused of the crime of "assault" along with sociologist Jenny Pantoja Torres.
The prosecution requests four years in prison. Her trial, originally scheduled for January 30th, was indefinitely postponed by Judge Ysenia Rodríguez Vázquez with no new date set.
Despite the restrictions, she was detained for almost ten hours in April and again in June while attempting to carry out her monthly peaceful protests at the Parque de la Libertad in Matanzas.
Your message arrives at a time of unprecedented repression. According to data from Prisoners Defenders, Cuba has reached a historical record of 1,306 political prisoners as of the end of June, including 40 minors, 16 of whom are held in adult prisons. Of this total, 338 individuals remain incarcerated solely due to their participation in the protests on July 11, 2021.
The anniversary also coincides with the enforced disappearance of the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was removed from the Guanajay prison on July 7 without his family being informed of his whereabouts, which led the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances to activate an Urgent Action and gave Cuba until July 25 to provide answers.
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