Cubalex fully disseminates a release Signed by independent organizations and media outlets to demand the release of reporter and activist Luis Ángel Cuza Alfonso, sentenced in November 2023 to one year and six months in prison for political reasons.
Wednesday, January 10, 2023. The undersigned organizations and media outlets reject the sentence against Cuban reporter and collaborator of the digital media outlet CubaNet, Luis Ángel Cuza Alfonso, sentenced on November 7, 2023 to one year and six months in prison for the alleged crime of “public disorder”.
Activist Ángel Cuza is currently being held in the Combinado del Este maximum security prison in Havana. He was accused of public disorder. The incident for which he was convicted dates back to Thursday, December 1, 2022, when He was arrested Along with Lázaro Rolando Kessel Barrueto and Yasser Rivero Bonni, he was arrested while trying to buy food at a store in the Central Havana municipality. The situation the activist faces demonstrates the arbitrariness of his arrest and the legal proceedings against him.
Ángel Cuza joins the long list of journalists and activists who suffer the systematic violation of their human rights, accentuated in recent years by the socio-economic and political deterioration that Cuba is going through.
This is not the first time Cuza has faced arbitrary detention. ARTICLE 19 documented that, after participating in peaceful protests in support of the San Isidro Movement and, in particular, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, he was violently detained on April 30, 2021, and was not released until January 2022.
According to Cubalex, from January 2022 to November 2023, the journalist and activist was subjected to 10 arbitrary arrests, eight surveillance operations involving house arrest, four illegal summonses, four threats, and internet service cutoffs, among other acts of aggression. Furthermore, last September he was prevented from leaving his home due to the G77+China Summit., along with other journalists. Finally, on November 7, 2023, he was sentenced to one year and six months in prison.
The conviction of Ángel Cuza and two other activists occurred in the days leading up to the Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations Human Rights Council, where several countries highlighted the urgent need to address guarantees of respect for freedom of expression and assembly in the country, as well as the cessation of persecution of activists, journalists, and artists.
The media, We, the undersigned journalists and organizations, demand the immediate release of Luis Ángel Cuza Alfonso from the Cuban government, given that the motivation for sentencing him and keeping him imprisoned is purely political. We also demand that the government abandon its strategy of persecuting activists and journalists who challenge or question the government through their publications and/or their defense of human rights.
They sign
ARTICLE 19 Office for Mexico and Central America
Cubanet
Cubalex
DemoAmlat
Daily Cuba
Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP)
Inverted Tree Cultural Magazine
Feminist Magazine Tense Wings
Artists At Risk Connection (ARC) – PEN America
Inventory Project
Democratic Spaces
National Press Association, ANP (Bolivia)
Institute for Press and Freedom of Expression, IPLEX (Costa Rica)
Rialta
DNA Cuba