The Cuban historian and philosopher Alina Bárbara López Hernández published a text on Facebook reaffirming her commitment to the monthly peaceful protest held on the 18th of each month and anticipated that she would be detained this Sunday when attempting to exercise that right in Matanzas.
In the post shared on Saturday, López Hernández defended the legitimacy of his action and framed it within the Cuban Constitution itself: "Since March 18, 2023, I have used this means to express my dissatisfaction. In doing so, I am exercising my right to peaceful protest, which is enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba."
The academic has been individually protesting every 18th of the month at the Parque de la Libertad in Matanzas for over three years, an initiative that started in 2023, the centennial of the historic "Protest of the Thirteen," when the poet Rubén Martínez Villena and other Cuban intellectuals interrupted an official event to denounce the corruption of the then government.
In his text, López Hernández dismantles the accusation of "illegal propaganda against the constitutional order" that the regime uses to justify its repression: "It is not propaganda. Propaganda is what the Party and the State use to cover up their lack of social support and the general crisis we are experiencing."
He goes further and openly declares his position: "Let me be clear in case there is any doubt, I openly oppose a constitutional order that only admits the power of the State and not the rights of the citizens."
López Hernández anticipated what he expects will happen when he goes out to protest this Sunday: "Surely when they arrest me tomorrow, they won’t even mention what I’ve expressed. They don’t have the courage for that. Nor the ethics. They will return with the old routine of a warning citation because I violated the house arrest of a false judicial measure that they don’t dare take to its full consequences."
This precautionary home confinement has been in place since June 18, 2024, in the context of the so-called "case 40," a criminal process that she shares with sociologist Jenny Pantoja Torres. The Prosecutor's Office is requesting four years of imprisonment for López Hernández on charges of assault, contempt, and disobedience. The trial, which had been scheduled for January 30, 2026, was suspended by Judge Ysenia Rodríguez Vázquez without a new date being announced.
That indefinite suspension has turned the precautionary measure into a tool for permanent control. So far this year, the activist has been detained at least five times while attempting to carry out her monthly protest.
López Hernández describes herself in the text as "a citizen and intellectual who understood that passivity and obedience have led us to our current situation," and clarified that she does not belong to any political party or organization.
The post concludes with a brief and powerful phrase — "Tomorrow is the 18th" — followed by its usual slogans: "Freedom for our fellow countrymen imprisoned for political reasons. Freedom and social justice for all Cubans."
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