Nearly a year after foreign ministers from 21 nations condemned mass arrests and detention of protestors by the government of Cuba, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed the call.
The initial demand was made July 2021 and called for the Cuban government to release the detained protestors as they were within their rights to peaceful protest, according to the joint statement.
“The Cuban regime has condemned over 550 protestors to more than 4,000 combined years of prison or other punitive measures since the historic July 11, 2021, protests,” Blinken said in a June 28 post on Twitter. “As we near the #11J anniversary, those protestors who remain detained should be returned home to their families.”
Despite repeated calls for their release, Cuban protestors are still being sentenced, Al Jazeera reported June 24.
Two Cuban artists, Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara and Maykel Castillo were sentenced to nine and five years in prison respectively, Al Jazeera reported. The two were heavily involved in leading activism against the Cuban government, such as leading a number of protests over the past two years.
The international rights group Amnesty International considers both men prisoners of conscience. They have spent months behind bars, which prompted widespread condemnation and requests for their release, Al Jazeera reported.
