During October 2025, Cuba faced one of the year's most severe humanitarian crises after Hurricane Melissa, a Category 4 storm, devastated the eastern region. The humanitarian emergency highlighted the state's inability to assist the population and the lack of transparency in the management of international aid, while serious shortages of electricity, drinking water, food, and basic services persisted.
In this context, Cubalex recorded 34 citizen protests against precarious living conditions, power outages, and food shortages. The state's response was immediate and repressive, in contrast to its inaction in the face of growing public insecurity, reflected in 94 documented violent incidents and 19 murders.
Cubalex's monitoring documented 211 repressive incidents in 47 municipalities, reflecting the systematic use of repression as a tool of social control. People deprived of their liberty, human rights defenders, and Afro-descendants were the most affected groups.
Prisons continue to be sites of serious human rights violations, with lack of medical care, malnutrition, and repeated abuses. Cases of torture, forced exile, and excessive use of police force against citizens were also documented. Furthermore, reprisals against the families of opposition members, exclusion from school, and defamation campaigns containing misogynistic and homophobic content were documented.
The regime maintained the criminalization of protest through figures such as “propaganda against the constitutional order” and “public disorder”, with sentences of up to six years for peaceful demonstrations and arrests for putting up anti-government posters.
The report was prepared using 769 records, of which 558 correspond to news of the context and 211 to repressive events, collected between October 1 and 31, 2025.
October laid bare the simultaneous collapse of Cuba's economic, healthcare, and humanitarian systems, exacerbated by the devastation of Hurricane Melissa. The authoritarian management of the emergency and the systematic use of repression confirm that the state prioritizes political control over protecting the lives and rights of its people.
Read the full report and learn more about the findings of the month.