On the second anniversary of their designation as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International, calls have intensified for the immediate release of Félix Navarro, Sayli Navarro, and Roberto Pérez Fonseca, who remain detained in Cuba. The human rights organization highlighted their continued imprisonment as a flagrant violation of their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, violations underscored by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) which critiques arbitrary detention practices undermining international human rights standards.
The detentions follow the July 11, 2021, anti-government demonstrations known as the 11J protests, which represented a significant moment of civil unrest. In the aftermath, observers including Human Rights Watch documented extensive arbitrary detentions and closed-door proceedings lacking due process, reflecting broader concerns about Cuba’s judicial processes. The Cuban National Assembly’s new Criminal Code, criticized for its broad language on sedition and constitutional crimes, further compounds worries about judicial impartiality.
Félix Navarro, a prominent figure in the Pedro Luis Boitel Democracy Party, was detained alongside his daughter Sayli after seeking information on fellow demonstrators at a police station. Roberto Pérez Fonseca’s arrest resulted from protests in San Antonio de los Baños, where he was charged with defacing a portrait of Fidel Castro. Despite international attention, Cuban authorities have maintained their detentions, drawing criticism from global rights organizations.
Human rights groups such as Cuban Prisoners Defenders continue to highlight the untenable conditions within Cuban prisons, citing restricted medical care and punitive isolation in violation of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Nelson Mandela Rules. Amnesty International also notes the use of surveillance and short-term detentions to intimidate families of political prisoners, further eroding civil freedoms.
Underpinning these criticisms is the foundational international legal principle that detaining individuals solely for peaceful expression is an arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Amnesty advocates for dismantling domestic legal frameworks that penalize dissent and ensuring the release of all those held for exercising basic freedoms. Read more about these developments from Amnesty International’s statement.