Cubalex documented an average of more than 10 human rights violation events each day during the first half of 2026 in a period marked by a significant increase in social protests and a broadening of state repression against citizens without ties to opposition organizations, according to a new report from the organization.
The independent organization documented 1,894 events involving human rights violations between January 1 and June 30, compared to the 1,279 recorded during the second half of 2025.
The increase was 48%, although the entity itself warns that part of the rise is due to an expansion of its monitoring capacity and a higher number of direct complaints received.
The comparison involves increasing from an average of seven events per day between July and December 2025 to 10.5 during the first six months of 2026.
Cubalex considers, however, that other indicators —such as the territorial expansion of events, the increase in protests, and the rise in potentially unlawful deaths— provide converging signals of a true intensification of repression.
To prepare the report, the organization worked with 1,894 records obtained mainly from Facebook posts (1,275), private messaging (326), news from websites (215), posts on X (49), Instagram (17), and YouTube (12).
The monitoring identified at least 919 people directly affected: 204 women and 715 men.
58% of the repressive events affected members of independent civil society, while 42% corresponded to citizens with no known organizational affiliation.
Among these, the report identifies protesters, critics on social media, informal workers, religious individuals, conscripts of Mandatory Military Service, and people in vulnerable situations. Cubalex indicates that the number of victims within these sectors has doubled compared to the previous semester.
Record number of protests amidst the crisis
One of the elements that Cubalex highlights is the significant growth of social protest.
The organization documented 766 protests during the first six months of the year, amid the worsening of the energy, water, and health crisis.
The events were recorded in the 15 provinces and in the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, reaching 141 municipalities, compared to the 88 counted during the previous semester, representing a 60% increase in the territorial coverage of the documented events.
June also marked the highest number of protests in a single month since Cubalex began this type of monitoring in 2022, with 253 demonstrations.
Havana recorded the highest number of violations, with 662, followed by Santiago de Cuba with 169, and Camagüey with 161. At the municipal level, Camagüey led the records with 153, ahead of Santiago de Cuba with 137, and Ciego de Ávila with 96.
Among the 65 categories of repressive incidents identified, the most frequent were violations against individuals deprived of liberty, with 762 records; transfers to detention centers or penitentiary establishments, with 318; threats or coercion, with 313; and police surveillance operations, with 287.
A total of 269 incidents of violence or harassment were also documented, along with 257 arbitrary detentions, 175 cases of denial of medical attention or negligence, and 165 official summons considered illegal or arbitrary by the organization.
42 potentially unlawful deaths
One of the most concerning pieces of data in the report pertains to the deaths that Cubalex classifies as potentially unlawful.
Between January and June, 39 events were identified with a total of 42 deceased individuals. One of these events involved four victims. In comparison to the 27 deceased individuals recorded during the second half of 2025, the increase was 56%.
Of the 42 victims, 30 were in custody: 28 men and two women.
Cubalex linked 22 of the documented deaths to a lack of medical attention or negligence, primarily in cases of severe malnutrition and untreated illnesses.
The organization also recorded five deaths reported as suicides while under state custody or during Mandatory Military Service, two homicides of inmates at the hands of other prisoners, and five cases that remained unresolved at the end of the report.
The deterioration of prison conditions had already been noted during the early months of the year.
In April, Cubalex reported that it had documented seven deaths in Cuban prisons during February, in cases linked to malnutrition, violence among inmates, deaths reported as suicides, and inadequate medical care.
The concern has persisted after the period analyzed in the semi-annual report.
In August, in a report focused specifically on deaths under state custody associated with medical negligence or lack of care, Cubalex identified 19 deaths so far in 2026.
Of those 19 cases, 17 involved individuals confined in eight penitentiary centers across the country, while the other two occurred at a police station in Havana and at the Psychiatric Hospital of Cienfuegos.
Additionally, outside the period covered by the semiannual report, the report from Cubalex for July counted 388 repressive events, which involved 817 incidents of harassment against 302 individuals. That month, the organization also documented 199 public protests.
A trend that has been present in previous semesters
The new data deepens a pattern that the organization has been tracking for several years.
In the first semester of 2025, Cubalex had documented 1,566 human rights violations, averaging nearly nine per day, spread across 105 municipalities in the country.
In the report for January-June 2026, Cubalex identifies six trends that, according to the organization, deepen those previously observed: the escalation of lethality in state custody; the increase in reactive repression against protests; the expansion of control over daily life; the criminalization of the exercise of rights; the use of isolation and mobility restrictions; and the normalization of impunity.
The organization also points out as new factors the legal institutionalization of migration control and the formalization of absentia criminal proceedings against members of the Cuban diaspora.
According to their findings, the data as a whole reveals a repressive structure that is no longer limited to organized opponents, but increasingly affects citizens who protest or express discontent over the daily crisis.
Cubalex warns, however, that their figures should not be considered complete or final.
The organization acknowledges that online monitoring does not cover reports made on private profiles or cases involving individuals without a mobile phone or access to data, and therefore believes that numerous violations may remain undocumented.
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