The Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Granma requests sentences ranging from five to ten years in prison for four Cuban dissidents, in a case that includes among its accusatory elements critical videos of the regime, WhatsApp messages, and phone top-ups, according to an investigation published this Wednesday by the independent outlet elTOQUE.
The information comes from the provisional conclusions of the Preparatory Phase File 45/2025, dated July 21, 2026, which the news portal claims to have accessed.
The document reveals the individual requests of the Prosecutor's Office, but it does not constitute a ruling nor does it mean that the requests were made this week.
According to the investigation, the requested sentences are ten years in prison for Ariel Eugenio Arzuaga Peña; nine years for his wife, Yaquelín García Jaén; seven years for Daniel Barrios Figueredo; and five years for Yoalis Mayelin Figueredo Carbonell.
The four are accused of the alleged offenses of "propaganda against the constitutional order" and "public disorder".
The Prosecutor's Office also attributes to them links with Cuba Primero, an opposition organization founded in Miami and included by the Cuban Ministry of the Interior in its national list of alleged terrorist organizations.
The defendants' affiliation with that organization is one of the allegations recorded in the case file and should not be presented as a judicially proven fact. Similarly, the prosecutors' requests do not equate to convictions.
The events described by the prosecution occurred between October and November 2024. According to elTOQUE, the document mentions recordings shared through the social media program Cántalo TV, exchanges in WhatsApp groups, and videos related to a protest.
One of the episodes used against Arzuaga is a recording from October 23, 2024 in which he questioned hunger, misery, and the shortage of food, water, and electricity in Cuba, as well as calling on the population to unite to demand political change.
The Prosecutor's Office interprets those statements as part of alleged calls to commit crimes. However, the analysis by elTOQUE indicates that the expressions reproduced in the document constitute criticism of the Government and calls for unity, without specific instructions to commit violent acts.
The outlet emphasizes that in the pages of the dossier to which it had access, none of the four defendants are attributed acts of violence or material damage.
Another recording mentioned by the Prosecutor's Office captures a complaint made by Arzuaga following the arrest of his wife, related to a police search at a family residence.
According to the investigation, the accusatory document presents this public complaint as an indication of his alleged intention to disclose information against the authorities.
Digital communications also play an important role in the accusation. The document mentions the alleged involvement of those implicated in two WhatsApp groups, named Fieles Valientes and Taller de Libertad de Expresión, in which, according to the Prosecutor's Office, issues related to human rights were discussed.
In the case of Daniel Barrios Figueredo, the accusation includes sending via WhatsApp several videos of a protest that took place on November 5, 2024 in the Camilo Cienfuegos neighborhood in Bayamo.
His family claims that Barrios was a spectator at one of the protests and that he was detained after responding to a police summons the following day.
The document also includes two top-ups for mobile credit that Barrios is said to have received on October 30 and November 4, 2024.
According to elTOQUE, the Attorney General's Office uses certificates from the Telecommunications Company of Cuba (Etecsa) to present these operations as part of a supposed funding from abroad.
Among the materials cited by the Prosecutor's Office are also forensic analyses of phones seized from Barrios and Arzuaga, institutional reports on Cuba Primero, and assessments of the so-called "counter-revolutionary" behavior of the accused.
In those reports, according to the research, issues such as the lack of integration in mass organizations aligned with the regime are mentioned.
In the case of Arzuaga, the file even states that “he is accustomed to listening to subversive music at high volumes.”
For elTOQUE, these elements demonstrate how the prosecutor's writing employs political expressions, private communications, and personal behaviors to support the accusations.
The investigation also specifies that the Prosecutor's Office requests eight years in prison for Arzuaga Peña and García Jaén for the crime of propaganda against the constitutional order, along with additional penalties requested for public disorder, amounting to a total of nineteen years, respectively.
The process is preceded by the arrests of three of the accused in November 2024. According to the published information, Barrios was arrested on the 6th; García Jaén, on the 8th; and Arzuaga Peña, on the 27th of that month.
The three remained in pretrial detention without trial when the investigation was published, almost 23 months after their arrests. As for Yoalis Mayelin Figueredo Carbonell, the pages of the file reviewed by elTOQUE do not clarify her procedural status.
The arrest of García Jaén had been reported by the legal advisory organization Cubalex. In a publication dated November 21, 2024, the organization highlighted alleged irregularities during the search of her home and her arrest.
Cubalex then reported the alleged absence of search and arrest warrants, the lack of formal communication regarding the charges, and the isolation of the activist.
She also reported that she had initially been accused of "illegal sale of food" and that she was later charged with the alleged crime of "incitement to commit a crime."
The charges described in November 2024 should not be confused with those appearing in the provisional conclusions of July 2026.
The situation of García Jaén was once again addressed in a report by elTOQUE published in August, which included statements from the activist from prison, family testimonies, and an assessment from a lawyer at Cubalex.
According to the latest research, in July 2026, the Provincial People's Court of Granma rejected a habeas corpus petition filed by García Jaén's defense.
The prosecutor's document requests the opening of oral proceedings before the Chamber of Crimes Against State Security of the Provincial Popular Court of Santiago de Cuba. The investigation does not identify a scheduled date for the hearing.
The case raises questions about the use of criminal law in relation to political expression and the duration of provisional detention.
Freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are recognized in Articles 54 and 56 of the Cuban Constitution, while international human rights instruments protect the presumption of innocence and the right to be judged within a reasonable time.
Accusations related to critical publications have also emerged in other recent cases. At the beginning of October, it was reported that the Prosecutor's Office was seeking up to ten years in prison for the young people from the project El4tico, in Holguín, due to videos circulated on social media.
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