Havana/Five opposition activists – William Cepero García, Josiel Guía Piloto, Lázaro Romero Piloto, Alain Yosvani Cruz Suescum and Jesús Alfredo Pérez Rivas – were sentenced on June 20 by the Provincial Court of Havana to five to seven years in prison for the crime of propaganda against the constitutional order, for protesting against the government last year, the organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) reported on Thursday.
According to the NGO, based in Madrid, on February 13, 2023, the five activists, who have been members of different organizations for years, met in the municipality of Old Havana, at the home of Josiel Guía Piloto, a member of the Party. Republican of Cuba (not legally recognized). At that moment, Guía Piloto asked his uncle, Lázaro Romero Piloto, to sew his mouth as a symbol of protest. This action was recorded by William Cepero and uploaded to social networks.
Subsequently, the five made posters with phrases such as “Cuba failed state”, “Díaz-Canel murderer” and “Homeland and life”. They took to the streets and began to shout “down with the dictatorship,” while moving the banners from one place to another, which was also recorded and spread on social networks.
The five were detained by the authorities and transferred to the criminal investigation body, where precautionary measures were ordered without judicial protection.
According to the sentence, which disqualifies the protests, the five accused “planned to go out into the streets carrying posters with anti-constitutional, counter-revolutionary content in their hands, with the aim of promoting hatred and rejection against the government system in the rest of the population. socialist movement embodied and approved in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba.”
The next day, the five were detained by the authorities and transferred to the criminal investigation body, where precautionary measures were ordered without judicial protection and they were subjected to interrogations without the presence of their lawyers, according to PD.
The crime for which they were sentenced is the same in all five cases: propaganda against the constitutional order. Cepero García, 59, received a five-year prison sentence.
Pilot Guide was sentenced to seven years. He had previously served five years in prison, since 2016, for public disorder and contempt. In 2019, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted him precautionary measures due to serious violations of his human rights in prison; That same year, Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience.
This case illustrates the complex relationship between the right to demonstrate and the restrictions imposed in authoritarian regimes
Pérez Rivas, meanwhile, received a five-year sentence. Along with Guía Piloto, he was also arrested and imprisoned in 2016, although for six years. In his case, the IACHR also granted him precautionary measures.
Finally, Romero Piloto, Josiel’s uncle, was punished with seven years behind bars, while Cruz Suescum received a sentence of five years of correctional work without confinement.
“This case illustrates the complex relationship between the right to demonstrate and the restrictions imposed in authoritarian regimes,” said the organization, which stressed that these acts of freedom of expression “should be protected and not criminalized.”
