The Cuban opposition figure Eider Frómeta Allen, a member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and promoter of the Cuba Decide initiative, was released this Tuesday after more than seven and a half years in prison.
Shortly after leaving Boniato prison in Santiago de Cuba, Frómeta arrived at his home in Guantánamo, where he recorded a video surrounded by family and friends. The footage was shared on social media by opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer García.
"I emerged alive, the regime couldn't break me, and here we are. Here we are to keep moving forward," affirmed Frómeta.
The activist was arrested in January 2019 and sentenced to eight and a half years of imprisonment for the crimes of disobedience, assault, and robbery with violence. Human rights organizations such as Prisoners Defenders, Cubalex, and the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights have regarded his imprisonment as politically motivated.
Initially confined in the Guantánamo Combined Prison, Frómeta was later transferred to Boniato Prison after calling for a hunger strike.
In May 2025, Cubalex reported a pattern of repression against the activist inside the prison, which included the denial of a minimum security regime, inadequate medical care, and retaliation for reporting the prison conditions.
In his first message after regaining his freedom, Frómeta revealed that he will share his experiences from his years of imprisonment.
"Later, I will recount in detail everything I went through in prison, all the violations that were committed against me, all the abuses, all the mistreatment that my family and I endured. Everything that my family suffered, my son taken away from me. It was seven years and eight months in prison," she expressed.
Ferrer, who shared the video from exile, stated that during his detention, Frómeta suffered "violence, beatings, torture, and confinement in solitary cell."
"We continue the fight."
After nearly eight years in prison, Frómeta assured that his release does not mean he is abandoning his political activism.
"We continue the fight, we remain in the struggle, we have changed the stage, now we are in the streets, but we keep battling for the freedom of the Cuban people, for the rights of Cubans, primarily for political rights," he affirmed.
He also dedicated part of his first message to those who remain incarcerated.
"I stand in support of all the political prisoners I left behind, all of whom asked me to speak for them. Here I am, I will do it," he promised.
Her release comes at a time when Prisoners Defenders counted 1,327 political prisoners in Cuba at the end of July 2026, after adding 36 new cases during that month.
The Boniato prison, where Frómeta spent a significant part of his sentence, has been repeatedly condemned by organizations and activists for the conditions in which inmates are kept, including issues of overcrowding, food, access to water, and medical care.
Now free and reunited with his family, Frómeta made it clear that he intends to continue his activism.
"The regime is in power today, but we can overthrow it. The regime is in power, we can overthrow it and we will continue to fight for that," he concluded.
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