Cuban prisons became the epicenter of repression in September 2026, according to the monthly report by the human rights organization Cubalex, published on October 13.
Almost half of the 298 documented repressive events that month affected individuals who were incarcerated, some of whom protested within the penitentiary facilities through hunger and thirst strikes.
In response to those prison protests, the regime imposed a communications blackout that the organization described as the most severe recorded in all of 2026: "For almost a week, relatives of inmates in dozens of facilities were unable to communicate with them and were left without news."
The 298 repressive events in September represent a slight increase compared to the 280 in August, and the direct victims rose from 187 to 193.
However, the most striking figure is the drastic decline in public protests: Cubalex documented only 35 citizen demonstrations, a decrease of 63% compared to the 94 recorded the previous month.
The organization warned that "monitoring data alone does not allow us to establish the causes of that decline," although the report places the month in a context of "almost daily blackouts, food shortages, and unpaid salaries."
Havana accounted for 38% of the repressive incidents—about 113 events—while Camagüey, home to the prison with the most incidents, came in second with 15%. Santiago de Cuba gathered 6% of the cases.
The repression reached similar proportions among members of the independent civil society and individuals without known organizational ties.
The report also recorded 12 deaths linked to state custody in September, the highest monthly figure since February 2026. Of these, eight occurred within prisons, two were former detainees who died shortly after their release in critical condition, and two were 18-year-old recruits who died during Mandatory Military Service.
These figures bring the total number of documented prison deaths by Cubalex to 49 during 2026 up to that point.
Among the individual cases, Cubalex reported on the serious deterioration of health of Yoan Arévalo, imprisoned in the Jóvenes del Cotorro prison in Havana, who was vomiting and defecating blood without being transferred to a hospital.
It also reported the situation of Saylí Navarro Álvarez, detained in La Bellotex, in Matanzas, with stomach issues in a facility that, according to the report, has not had a doctor since May 2026. Navarro Álvarez, a member of the Damas de Blanco and a proponent of Cuba Decide, is serving an eight-year sentence for her participation in the protests of July 11, 2021.
The pattern of deaths in custody is not new. Between February 2024 and June 2026, Cubalex documented 115 fatalities in Cuban prisons, with 70% attributed to negligence or denial of medical care. At least 21 inmates died from severe malnutrition or starvation, and 12 from tuberculosis during that period.
The socioeconomic context worsened the situation: on September 18, the National Electroenergy System completely collapsed and took about 32 hours to restore, amid a blackout crisis that had already been deteriorating for months.
According to the organization Prisoners Defenders, Cuba ended September with 1,351 political prisoners, of which 476 suffer from illnesses and remain imprisoned.
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