Miguel Díaz-Canel welcomed George Katrougalos this Wednesday at the Palace of the Revolution, an independent expert from the UN Human Rights Council on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order. He took the opportunity to reaffirm Cuba's alleged commitment to human rights, as reported by the official site of the Cuban Presidency.
The leader expressed gratitude for the statements from the Human Rights Council in favor of Cuba and assured that the island "will continue to cooperate with UN mechanisms on this sensitive issue."
In the meeting, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, also participated.
Far from addressing internal repression, Díaz-Canel focused his speech on the U.S. embargo, which he described as "the longest in the history of humanity; an economic, financial, commercial, and now energy blockade, but not from just any country, rather from the most powerful nation in the world."
He also stated that Cuba's stance on that situation is "not to surrender and to resist, but also to be able to advance," adding that this means "being capable, with our own effort and our own talent, of overcoming the most adverse conditions."
The official discourse stands in stark contrast to the reality documented by independent organizations.
According to Prisoners Defenders, Cuba closed June 2026 with 1,306 political prisoners, among them 40 minors, 16 of whom remain confined in adult prisons.
Amnesty International demanded in April 2026 the release of all prisoners of conscience, noting that none of those recognized by the organization had been released and that the announcements of release lacked transparency.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights recorded 332 repressive actions in May 2026 alone, while Cubalex documented 319 repressive events in June.
Katrougalos, a Greek jurist and former chancellor of his country, was in Cuba for an academic visit.
During his stay, he gave a lecture organized by the Union of Jurists of Cuba and the universities of Havana and International Relations, met with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and visited the Latin American School of Medicine and the Assisted Living Center of the Quisicuaba Program.
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the visit as "a new expression of the cooperation that Cuba maintains with the universal and non-discriminatory human rights mechanisms of the United Nations."
This scene is part of a systematic diplomatic strategy of the regime: to use multilateral forums to present the embargo as the only relevant human rights violation on the island, while avoiding any reference to internal repression.
In April, Díaz-Canel had already participated via a recorded message at a conference in Geneva under the auspices of the UN to accuse Washington of "flagrantly, deliberately, and unjustifiably violating the human rights" of Cubans.
Justicia 11J warned in April 2026 that 338 people remained imprisoned for the protests of July 11, 2021, five years after those events.
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