I’m One of Cuba’s Political Prisoners. When Will I Go Free? |
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I’m One of Cuba’s Political Prisoners. When Will I Go Free?
I know that the guards are not to blame for my being here. Our destructive, dysfunctional political system isn’t their fault.
By Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara (New York Times)
HAVANA TIMES – In early April, amid mounting U.S. pressure, the Cuban government announced that it was releasing over 2,000 prisoners in what the Cuban Embassy in Washington called a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture.” The embassy said the amnesty would not extend to those who had committed “crimes against authority,” a term generally applied to political dissidents. In other words, it did not extend to me.
I’ve been in prison in Cuba for almost five years. I was arrested in July 2021, along with hundreds of other people whose mostly peaceful demonstrations, expressions of dissent, criticism of public officials and marches in the street have been treated as crimes in Cuba. The Cuban government has denied holding political prisoners. But many of us remain behind bars.
My sentence is supposed to be up in early July. I’ve been hearing a lot of rumors within the prison: that the state won’t free me, that the island is running out of food and fuel, that President Trump is going to bomb Cuba. Even though the Trump administration has demanded the release of Cuba’s political prisoners, I don’t know if I will be allowed to go free, or what will happen to me or my country.
But I do know that when the government says that Cuba’s political system is not up for debate in potential negotiations with the United States, it means that political dissent will almost certainly not be decriminalized and that people like me will continue to go to jail.
In 2018, I co-founded the San........