The U.S. State Division has taken motion towards 4 Cuban officers for his or her function in imprisoning activist Luis Robles Elizástigui, calling it a severe human rights violation.
Luis Robles Elizástigui is a Cuban activist who gained worldwide consideration after being arrested in December 2020 for peacefully protesting in Havana. He stood alone on San Rafael Boulevard holding an indication that learn “Libertad” (Freedom) and “No más represión” (No extra repression), calling for the discharge of rapper Denis Solís and an finish to authorities repression.
Robles was charged with “enemy propaganda” and “disobedience” and sentenced to 5 years in jail—a punishment extensively condemned by human rights organizations as unjust and politically motivated. Throughout his imprisonment, he reportedly confronted mistreatment, together with threats from state safety brokers and denial of medical care.
In January 2025, after serving a part of his sentence, Robles was launched on parole as a part of a broader settlement between the Cuban authorities, the Vatican, and the US, which led to the conditional launch of over 500 inmates.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the Cuban judicial system, saying judges and prosecutors “are brokers of the regime, not of an impartial judiciary,” and that they play “a important function in these arbitrary detentions and prosecutions.” The U.S. is focusing on prosecutor Yanaisa Matos Legrá and judges Gladys Maria Padrón Canals, Maria Elena Fornari Conde, and Juan Sosa Orama—all of whom work on the Folks’s Provincial Courtroom of Havana.
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“These designations are additional proof that the Trump Administration is dedicated to holding accountable Cuban regime officers concerned in violating human rights,” Rubio mentioned within the launch. “We proceed to make use of all out there instruments to face up for the human rights of the Cuban folks and encourage our allies and companions to do the identical.”
The designations include speedy penalties: the officers and their households at the moment are barred from getting into the US.
The State Division cited the “sham authorized processes that unjustly goal, convict, and sentence people for peaceable expressions and activism.”
The assertion additionally pointed to the repeated re-arrest of political prisoners like José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro on what it referred to as “frivolous grounds,” suggesting a wider sample of abuse by Cuba’s authorized establishments.
