Mayelín Rodríguez Prado was arrested after uploading images to Facebook of a small demonstration in Nuevitas in August 2022

At the age of 22, Mayelín Rodríguez Prado received the heaviest of the sentences the Cuban government handed down to a group of 13 people who demonstrated in August 2022 in the municipality of Nuevitas, in central Cuba. Prado, who is the mother of a little girl, will serve 15 years in prison for publishing the protests through the social network Facebook.

Prado recorded the moment in which Cuban police beat three girls during the demonstration, as well as other repressive actions against protestors. The young woman, whose daughter at the time was less than a year old, was detained at her home after the protest and held in solitary confinement at a State Security facility.

The judicial sentence issued by the Municipal Court of Camagüey, to which the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) had access, states that the court agreed to punish Prado as “author of an intentional and consummated crime of enemy propaganda of a continuous nature” and “author of an intentional and consummated crime of sedition.” The court also announced sentences of between four and 14 years for 12 other participants in the demonstration for the same crimes. According to the Cuban Penal Code, sedition is a “crime against the internal security of the State,” and anyone who “tumultuously and by means of express or tacit agreement, using violence, disturbs the socialist order” can be prosecuted on that charge.

    • Tinidril@midwest.social
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      8 months ago

      I’m not a tankie, and it’s not a good thing, but this isn’t exactly a great time for the US to puff it’s chest out about our right to protest and protections for whistle blowers.

        • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Did you read the article?

          U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols also criticized the convictions. " The harsh sentencing this week of up to 15 years in prison for Cubans who peacefully assembled in Nuevitas in 2022 is outrageous,” he said on X. “The Cuban government’s continued repression of Cubans striving to fulfill their basic rights and needs is unconscionable.”

        • Tinidril@midwest.social
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          8 months ago

          By referring to “tankies” it was already an implied comparison between Cuba and more western democracies, and this is the Midwest instance. Accusations of “Whataboutism” are way overdone.

      • wafflez@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Most modern social rights beliefs were at some point in history, if not still are, radical

    • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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      8 months ago

      Individuals need to be sacrificed to the greater good of the revolution?

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        8 months ago

        Honestly I’d respect them more if they went with that more frequently. At least we could agree on facts, then, even if we might depart on moral judgements.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Wondering how they can tie this to American sanctions like they do with every other issue Cuba has.

      • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Like this.

        “Every possible means should be undertaken to promptly weaken the economic life of Cuba,” Lester D. Mallory, then the deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said in April 1960, arguing that U.S. policy should aim “to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”

        • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          That wrong doesn’t excuse someone being locked up for the “crime” of taking pictures of police brutality.

          • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Right. But it does tie it to the American sanctions like every other issue Cuba has.

            • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Ah, because of the root of the protest? I guess so, although Castro wasn’t exactly tolerant of political opponents prior to the sanctions.

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        So I will take a stab at it

        Sanctions aren’t relevant here to the outcome though you could relate them to the need for protest which still wouldn’t justify the outcome. It would let you side with the protesters for being the power of the people and exemplifying Juche

        however the US’ track record with both Cuba and the governments of other American countries does reasonably lead to paranoia

        Also worth noting Cuba is a dictatorship not communist

        • draneceusrex@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Agreed, but to your last point, it is also worth noting that there are different economic models under authoritarian regimes. Both Nazi Germany and the USSR were dictatorships. Is it Marixist Communism in Cuba? No. But it is recognizable as a communist state as was perpetuated by the Soviet Union historically, regardless if you feel the term has been misappropriated.

            • draneceusrex@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              One person being able to kill and erase from the country’s history books anyone under him, but is unable to micromanage every detail for a country with millions of people and is still forced to delegate tasks, does not make a dictatorship. Got it CIA. Thanks for the details of the semantics of the situation of these authoritarian regimes.