A father and his son are serving sentences in a forced labor camp in Cuba after being sentenced to six and five years in prison, respectively, for the crime of "propaganda against the constitutional order."
According to an investigation by CubaNet published on Friday, Serguey Pozo Tagle, 47 years old, and his son Yamislán Pozo Águila, 27, reported their situation by phone on August 22, 2026, from the El Yabú camp, located on the outskirts of Santa Clara.
The father admits to having published critical content about the regime on Facebook for approximately a year and to having distributed flyers with the message: "Cuban, the zero moment is approaching, it's time to go out and fight for your freedom. Long live Cuba first."
The son, on the other hand, maintains that he had no involvement in those activities and that the accusation never managed to prove otherwise.
Even so, he was sentenced as an accomplice. According to Yamislán, the punishment was retaliation for not having reported his father to the authorities.
The case presents a substantive legal controversy. Lawyer Alain Espinosa, from the Legal Information Center Cubalex, explained that these are distinct legal concepts: "One must not confuse complicity with the exceptions in crimes of concealment or failure to report; these are different matters. No one is obligated to report a close family member, and in the case of concealment, there is no penalty."
The Cuban Penal Code itself, in its article 203.1, exempts from punishment for concealment those who act to protect their ancestors, descendants, spouses, or siblings. The conviction of the child without evidence of active participation has been reported by Cubalex as a legal distortion that criminalizes familial silence.
Both were arrested on February 13, 2025, during the same operation: the father, at six in the morning at his home, in the presence of the State Security instructor, Lieutenant Luis Enrique, three patrol cars from the Revolutionary National Police, and other security apparatus vehicles.
The son was arrested at his workplace, the Elderly Home number 3 in Santa Clara, where the father worked as a mason and he worked in the laundry.
After the arrest, they remained 28 days incommunicado from each other at the State Security headquarters on the road to Camajuaní. Pozo Tagle described that he was taken "from the holding cell at any hour of the day or early morning" for interrogation.
The agents also raided the family home and confiscated a mobile phone, a laptop, and a printer. Forensic experts ruled out that these devices had been used to produce the flyers, but they have not been returned.
The trial took place on December 15, 2025, before the Chamber of Crimes Against State Security of the Santa Clara Municipal People's Tribunal. The Prosecutor linked the leaflets to the organization Cuba Primero, based in Miami, and requested seven years for the father and six for the son.
The sentences—lower than what was requested—were issued on April 29, 2026, four and a half months after the oral hearing.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights stated that the messages in the flyers did not incite violence or promote hatred.
Both are serving sentences at the El Yabú camp, documented by Prisoners Defenders in their report on forced labor in Cuban prisons, which estimated around 60,000 inmates employed under such conditions on the island.
The case adds to an expanding pattern of repression: Cuba reached a historic record of 1,327 political prisoners in July 2026, according to Prisoners Defenders, the highest number recorded since the organization started its tracking.
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