Since last July, the Cuban opposition couple Yunia Figueredo and Francisco Correa She faces increased harassment and repression by the authorities, in a context marked by the peaceful protests that took place that month in Jaimanitas, Playa municipality, Havana.
Both opposition members have denounced that the authorities intend to hold them criminally responsible for the demonstrations, even though these were expressions of citizen discontent with the situation the community is going through.
Since then, the regime has deployed various forms of harassment against them, including police summonses, threats, arbitrary arrests and interrogations. In it Correa's case, he was arrested last month and subsequently abandoned by the authorities in a remote location., in an episode that adds to the escalating reprisals against the couple.
The situation worsened again last September 1st, when Yunia Figueredo and Frank Correa were summoned and questioned in the Siboney PNR Unit. During the procedure, the authorities imposed warning reports, which both refused to sign, and they were identified as alleged instigators of the protests that took place in Jaimanitas.
In addition, Figueredo was sentenced to house arrest, along with the prohibition of leaving the municipality, These measures further restrict their freedom of movement while authorities maintain the threat of criminal prosecution related to the July protests.
This weekend, the freelance journalist reported surveillance outside her home, as well as a visit from the sector police chief to impose a new measure: appear on the 10th of each month to sign in at the police station.
Before leaving, he told her to have zero contact with the American embassy and to think about her daughters.
Legal and Human Rights Analysis of the Yunia Figueredo and Frank Correa Case
The systematic persecution, surveillance, and constant summonses issued by State Security against Yunia Figueredo and Frank Correa are not mere police procedures, but rather constitute cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. The sole objective of this continuous harassment is to subject them to a state of perpetual anxiety, forcing them to refrain from effectively exercising their fundamental constitutional and human rights, such as freedom of expression and thought.
The accusation that they organized or instigated the protests in Jaimanitas is, first of all, unfounded. These citizen demonstrations arose spontaneously as a result of widespread public discontent with the inhumane living conditions to which citizens are subjected, marked by prolonged power outages and a lack of basic services.
However, even assuming that the couple had organized or actively participated in said protests, these actions fall within the legitimate exercise of the rights of association, demonstration and peaceful assembly, fully guaranteed both in the national Constitution and in international human rights treaties, and therefore their exercise cannot be criminalized.
The criminalization of a fundamental right demonstrates that the “warning notice” they attempted to issue at the Siboney police station is a completely arbitrary and illegal act. While the official warning is a procedure provided for in the Cuban Penal Code, the principle of legality dictates that authorities cannot compel a citizen to refrain from performing acts that are neither criminal nor prohibited by law. In the hypothetical case that their actions were criminal in nature, the correct and legal course of action for the authorities should have been to initiate criminal proceedings with strict adherence to due process guarantees, which has not occurred.
The measures imposed on Yunia Figueredo, consisting of limiting her ability to leave her home (house arrest) and prohibiting her from leaving the municipality, are completely illegal.
According to current Cuban criminal procedure law, house arrest is a precautionary measure whose sole purpose is to ensure the presence of an accused person in an active criminal proceeding. In this case, no such proceeding exists, since neither Yunia nor Frank has been formally charged. Similarly, the prohibition against leaving the municipality is a restriction that must be imposed exclusively by a court, during the probationary period of a conditional dismissal within the framework of an established criminal proceeding. Given the absence of any criminal proceeding against them, the police imposition of these measures constitutes an unlawful restriction of liberty.
Practices constituting physical and mental torture, and vicarious violence
The actions of the authorities in this case exhibit multiple forms of physical and psychological torture. Direct threats of imprisonment—such as warning Yunia that she would not return home if summoned again—and prior actions, such as Frank's arrest and subsequent abandonment in an isolated location—endangering his personal safety and physical integrity—are acts of torture.
Added to this is an extremely serious element: the use of the couple's daughter as a weapon. This practice constitutes a clear form of vicarious violence, This tactic is aimed at causing the greatest possible psychological suffering to the parents by attacking their emotional support network. If the daughter is a minor, this action flagrantly violates the Best Interests of the Child, enshrined in both the national Constitution and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
It is imperative to emphasize that these acts of physical and mental torture not only represent a serious violation of the express prohibitions contained in the national Constitution and in international human rights treaties, but also They are classified as crimes in the Cuban Penal Code itself., which makes the acting state agents criminally liable.
The case of Yunia Figueredo and Frank Correa illustrates a pattern of state repression where legal mechanisms—such as warning notices and precautionary measures—are manipulated outside the legal framework, combined with psychological coercion, torture, and vicarious violence. All of this constitutes a pattern of serious human rights violations aimed at silencing peaceful activism and the exercise of civil liberties in Cuba.