Rapper and musician Richard Adrián Zamora Brito, better known as ‘El Radikal’, completed his 18-month sentence of ‘restriction of liberty’ in January 2024. He was also sentenced to a fine…

PEN International has learned that Alejandro Guilleuma Ibáñez is now reportedly serving a four-year prison term without confinement, imposed in May 2023 by the People's Municipal Court of Centro Habana after he was convicted of contempt…

The judicial harassment of essayist, editor and researcher Alina Bárbara López Hernández in connection with her writing and activism continued in 2024 (See Case List 2023/2024). In April 2024, López was detained for several hours…

Journalist and author Jorge Fernández Era continued to be subject to judicial harassment in 2024, mainly in retaliation for the humorous weekly column he writes for the magazine La Joven Cuba…

Art critic and columnist Raymar Aguado Hernández and historian and author Alexander Hall Lujardo continued to be subject to ongoing harassment in 2024 (see Case List 2023/2024). Aguado Hernández was summoned for questioning on 28 June 2024…

The essayist, historian and academic Jenny Pantoja Torres faced several instances of harassment for her ideas, writings and peaceful activism in relation to human rights in 2024. On 18 June 2024, Pantoja Torres was arbitrarily detained while traveling…

Filmmaker Orlando Mora Cabrera was detained by three State Security agents on 21 December 2024; he was released the same day. Before his arrest, Mora Cabrera had premiered the short film Matar a un hombre (To Kill a Man) (2024) in a number of alternative spaces…

Musician Gorki Luis Águila Carrasco was detained by State Security at Havana's José Martí International Airport on 3 May 2024 while attempting to travel to Mexico. The authorities informed Águila Carrasco…

On 21 April 2024, journalist and author Camila Acosta Rodríguez was briefly detained by police officials in Matanzas, Cuba, while on her way to visit relatives of political prisoners. Acosta was held…

Rapper Fernando Almenares Rivera (known as Nando OBCD) was detained on 31 December 2024 by two plain clothes police officials, reportedly without summons or judicial hearing, on ’suspicion’ that he had committed…

At the end of the year, rapper and activist Marco Antonio Pintueles Marrero continued to serve a five-year sentence of correctional labour in ‘La Aguada’ camp for the crime of ‘sedition’. Marco Antonio was arrested…

Yasmani González Valdés (also known as ‘Libre Libre’) was sentenced to four years in prison in February 2024, after conviction of ‘propaganda against the constitutional order’. He has been held in the Combinado…

Musician Ibrahim Domínguez Aguilar is serving a 10-year sentence in maximum security Boniato Prison in Santiago de Cuba where he has been held since August 2021, reportedly in a collective cell…

Cuban musician and rapper Maykel Castillo Pérez, widely known by the name ‘Maykel Osorbo’, continued serving a nine-year prison term in the high security 5 y Medio prison in Pinar del Río after his conviction on 24 June 2022 of charges including ‘contempt, attack, public disorder and defamation of institutions and organisations’…

Musician and rapper Randy Arteaga Rivera continued serving a five-year prison sentence in prison camp ‘La Guanajera’ at the end of the year. He was arrested on 11 July 2021 in Santa Clara province while participating in peaceful protests against restrictions…

On 10 January 2024, police officers arrested Cree/Iroquois/French freelance journalist Brandi Morin while she was reporting on an Indigenous encampment, in Edmonton, Alberta. When police raided the encampment, Morin said she identified herself…

At the end of the year, trials continued of several men for the 2022 murder of British journalist and author Dom Phillips and Indigenous issues expert Bruno Pereira during a fact-finding trip…

Journalist and writer Alejandro Alfie was judicially harassed in 2024. On 7 November 2024, he announced on social media that Esteban Glavinich (owner of the X account @TraductorTeAma and supporter of President Javier Milei) had filed a lawsuit…

Author Dolores Reyes faced stigmatisation by officials during the year. On 7 November 2024, Vice-President Victoria Villarruel labelled Reyes’ novel Cometierra (Sigilo, 2019), about a young woman who experiences visions when she eats soil, as immoral and degrading, showing excerpts on her…