The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) documented at least 387 repressive actions committed by the Cuban dictatorship during October 2026, a figure that exceeds the 344 recorded in September and raises the annual total to 3,438 actions, according to the monthly report published this Friday by the organization based in Madrid.
The total for 2026 has already surpassed that of the entire year of 2025, when the OCDH recorded 3,179 actions over twelve months. The organization also warns that its figures represent an underreporting, as restrictions on access to information on the island hinder the documentation of all cases.
Of the 387 actions in October, 30 were arbitrary arrests and 357 corresponded to other forms of abuse. The report also counted 145 surveillance and police blockade operations at the homes of activists, journalists, and opponents, as well as 73 complaints received from political prisoners, common prisoners, and their families.
The provinces most affected were Havana, Matanzas, and Villa Clara.
Arbitrary detentions primarily affected activists, political opponents, political prisoners, independent journalists, religious leaders, and citizens exercising their right to peaceful protest. Among the documented cases is the evangelical pastor Rolando Fidel Pérez Lora, known as “Proclaimer of Christ,” arrested on October 1 while he was heading to the Municipal People's Court of East Havana to support activist Anna Bensi and her mother during their trial.
On the same day, coinciding with the court appearance against Anna Bensi and her mother Caridad Silvente, State Security imposed police cordons against journalists Camila Acosta and Yoani Sánchez, writer Ángel Santiesteban-Prats, journalist Reinaldo Escobar, leader of the Ladies in White Berta Soler, and former political prisoner Ángel Moya, among others.
The report also recorded at least 63 abuses against political prisoners: physical assaults, isolation in punishment cells, denial of medical attention, restrictions on communication with family members, and arbitrary transfers. Among the most serious cases are those of Carlos Alain Abrahantes Valdés, Ediolvis Marín Mora, and Virgilio Mantilla Arango in Camagüey prisons, and the prolonged isolation of journalist Henry Constantín, who was sent to a punishment cell in mid-October.
In terms of fiscal requests, the OCDH recorded at least 35 individuals charged in four processes. The Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Ciego de Ávila requested sentences of up to 13 years in prison for 18 defendants related to the protests on March 13, 2026, in Morón; in Granma, up to ten years were sought against four individuals for disseminating critical videos; and in Bayamo, up to five years were requested for nine citizens for the protest on May 23, 2025.
The October report is published amid a week of particularly intense repression. On Wednesday, Yoani Sánchez was detained for nine hours in Havana, and this Friday, the police summoned members of Fuera de la Caja Cuba. The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Juan Pablo Segura, condemned the wave of arrests, labeling the regime as "cowardly" for resorting to arbitrary detentions "because it fears the truth."
"The regime is intensifying repression to force activists to leave the country, to intimidate the population, and to pressure the United States and the European Union. None of this will solve the serious structural crisis or the mistrust within the elite itself. Cuba is facing a political, economic, and social transition process," stated Yaxys Cires, director of Strategies for OCDH.
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