Reinaldo Ángel Echemendía Estrada, founder and former director of the Ballet Folclórico de Camagüey, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment, under the form of house arrest, for sexual harassment of minors.
The Camagüey journalist José Luis Tan Estrada reported on his social media about the sentence. The court ruled in accordance with the request made by the Prosecutor's Office and also ordered the permanent removal of Echemendía from all positions he held within the cultural apparatus of the province.
"Justice has been served. Today, Reinaldo Echemendía was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for the crime of stalking minors," stated Tan Estrada.
From his Facebook profile, the journalist was one of the voices that kept the case in the public eye for over a year.
«Not only was Reinaldo Echemendía judged, but a power structure in Camagüey was also put on trial. We are talking about the governor Jorge Enrique Sutil Sarabia and Walter Simón Noris, secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in the province, who had done everything possible to ensure that Echemendía came away unscathed from these charges,» said Tan Estrada.
The first public complaints emerged in April 2025, when the mother of a student from the Escuela de Arte Luis Casas Romero recounted that her daughter "suffered harassment and inappropriate suggestions from this professor during her social service internship."
The authorities' initial response was to move the young woman to another group, while the accused received only a private reprimand.
However, new victims came to light and the main whistleblower threatened to call for a public protest. As a result, the official was dismissed and a formal criminal process was initiated in June 2025.
Echemendía was released on bail and, according to a report by the Cultural Rights Observatory published in November 2025, he continued to exert influence within the Folkloric Ballet and even offered financial incentives to the victims to withdraw their complaints.
The judicial process was marked by pressures on those who dared to testify. "During this trial period, there were also threats, harassment, coercion, and intimidation against the victims to withdraw their complaints and not attend the trial, yet they still had the courage to show up, to stand firm, and to present the necessary arguments with evidence," Tan Estrada noted.
Echemendía will serve his sentence at his home in the Torre Blanca neighborhood, in buildings belonging to the cultural sector.
"We all know that this was a light sentence; where Reinaldo Echemendía should be right now is in a prison behind bars," the journalist stated.
The condemned had accumulated numerous official recognitions and held a prominent position within Cuban cultural institutions. He is an Illustrious Son of Camagüey, a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac), and an honorary member of the Hermanos Saíz Association.
In April 2024, the official newspaper Granma celebrated Reinaldo Ángel Echemendía Estrada as "Master" for his 50 years of artistic life.
The case bears similarities to that of the troubadour Fernando Bécquer, a figure in the Cuban cultural establishment who was condemned for sexual abuse following a sustained campaign of public denunciations.
The Ballet Folclórico de Camagüey is preparing to celebrate its 35th anniversary, an event during which Tan Estrada warned that he will closely monitor if Echemendía participates in any activities, in violation of the conditions of his sentence.
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