Mayelín Rodríguez Prado was arrested after uploading images to Facebook of a small demonstration in Nuevitas in August 2022
At the age of 22, Mayelín Rodríguez Prado received the heaviest of the sentences the Cuban government handed down to a group of 13 people who demonstrated in August 2022 in the municipality of Nuevitas, in central Cuba. Prado, who is the mother of a little girl, will serve 15 years in prison for publishing the protests through the social network Facebook.
Prado recorded the moment in which Cuban police beat three girls during the demonstration, as well as other repressive actions against protestors. The young woman, whose daughter at the time was less than a year old, was detained at her home after the protest and held in solitary confinement at a State Security facility.
The judicial sentence issued by the Municipal Court of Camagüey, to which the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) had access, states that the court agreed to punish Prado as “author of an intentional and consummated crime of enemy propaganda of a continuous nature” and “author of an intentional and consummated crime of sedition.” The court also announced sentences of between four and 14 years for 12 other participants in the demonstration for the same crimes. According to the Cuban Penal Code, sedition is a “crime against the internal security of the State,” and anyone who “tumultuously and by means of express or tacit agreement, using violence, disturbs the socialist order” can be prosecuted on that charge.
Waiting for the Tankies to tell us how this is actually a good thing
Wondering how they can tie this to American sanctions like they do with every other issue Cuba has.
So I will take a stab at it
Sanctions aren’t relevant here to the outcome though you could relate them to the need for protest which still wouldn’t justify the outcome. It would let you side with the protesters for being the power of the people and exemplifying Juche
however the US’ track record with both Cuba and the governments of other American countries does reasonably lead to paranoia
Also worth noting Cuba is a dictatorship not communist
Agreed, but to your last point, it is also worth noting that there are different economic models under authoritarian regimes. Both Nazi Germany and the USSR were dictatorships. Is it Marixist Communism in Cuba? No. But it is recognizable as a communist state as was perpetuated by the Soviet Union historically, regardless if you feel the term has been misappropriated.
Hmmm….
The Western idea of a dictatorship is exaggerated.
One person being able to kill and erase from the country’s history books anyone under him, but is unable to micromanage every detail for a country with millions of people and is still forced to delegate tasks, does not make a dictatorship. Got it CIA. Thanks for the details of the semantics of the situation of these authoritarian regimes.
Like this.
“Every possible means should be undertaken to promptly weaken the economic life of Cuba,” Lester D. Mallory, then the deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said in April 1960, arguing that U.S. policy should aim “to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”
That wrong doesn’t excuse someone being locked up for the “crime” of taking pictures of police brutality.
Right. But it does tie it to the American sanctions like every other issue Cuba has.
Ah, because of the root of the protest? I guess so, although Castro wasn’t exactly tolerant of political opponents prior to the sanctions.
I’m not a tankie, and it’s not a good thing, but this isn’t exactly a great time for the US to puff it’s chest out about our right to protest and protections for whistle blowers.
They didn’t mention the US
Did you read the article?
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols also criticized the convictions. " The harsh sentencing this week of up to 15 years in prison for Cubans who peacefully assembled in Nuevitas in 2022 is outrageous,” he said on X. “The Cuban government’s continued repression of Cubans striving to fulfill their basic rights and needs is unconscionable.”
born yesterday comment
But whatabout…!
By referring to “tankies” it was already an implied comparison between Cuba and more western democracies, and this is the Midwest instance. Accusations of “Whataboutism” are way overdone.
Individuals need to be sacrificed to the greater good of the revolution?
Honestly I’d respect them more if they went with that more frequently. At least we could agree on facts, then, even if we might depart on moral judgements.
Looks like the imaginary tankies didn’t show up.
At least now that child won’t be raised by some radical.
Most modern social rights beliefs were at some point in history, if not still are, radical
Hell yeah! Hope that kid gets lost for good. Focus on the dream Xi has for us ALL!
It seems the convergent evolution of government is authoritarianism. All governments seem to eventually move towards it.
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If you can keep it
“Keep your democracy. I saw democracy failing somewhere and being displaced by authoritarianism so I’m just opting for going straight to authoritarianism. I am smort but, also, do not trust me with the ability to influence my own society. I also don’t see the irony of expressing here how my society should be run (even though I’m anti-democracy).”
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
yeah, effort you have not been making
effort that might be unreasonable to expect under the circumstances, having abandoned your commitment to an educated electorate more than 40 years ago now. Shit has consequences.
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Cuba is overall liberalising, just have a look at the gazillion of reforms after Castro. OTOH authoritarian habits die hard especially in places such as courts backing up the “thin blue line”.
now THIS is an important perspective
I frequently think this too, but then remember that progress towards less authoritarianism does occasionally actually happen. For example the USA PATRIOT Act used to be everyone’s example of authoritarianism in the US, but that has by now expired. For another example, the Snowden revelations actually led to everyone’s devices and communications getting encrypted. When is the last time you heard about random small people being sued for copyright infringement by the RIAA or MPAA or something?
For less recent examples, consider the 1989-1991 fall of communism in Eastern Europe, making those countries a lot less authoritarian.
When the world gets better, we tend not to notice as much as when it gets worse.
Has anyone heard about FISA being expanded?
I think you’re one step too high…
Humans seem to thrive being controlled by authoritarian figures. If you look across the planet these people are getting voted in by someone.
The first one was God.
A third take: Authoritarian groups have been historically successful in wiping out (usually by force) less authoritarian groups and their methods of organizing.
Exactly. The only language violence respects or listens to is violence.
It’s the tolerance paradox - and why it’s a death sentence to tolerate groups or people who won’t reciprocate tolerance.
I guess Cuba and America aren’t so different after all…
Oh no! You caught us doing something that makes us look bad!
Straight to jail.
Winds of Change by Scorpions played on a kazoo
That’s a heavy sentence. I am curious if she is the most sympathetic case or what are the situations with those other 12 who appear to have received lesser sentences?
The court also announced sentences of between four and 14 years for 12 other participants in the demonstration for the same crimes.
Maybe they had less friends on facebook
Seems a bit excessive
cmon Cuba you’re supposed to be cool, don’t be this guy
Yeah, I’m re-assessing my thoughts on Cuba. I was under the vague impression that they didn’t have the same rot at the core of the CCP and USSR. Maybe they don’t and this is a particular low point. Either way, bad look.
seems like the blockade is working as intended
At least I get to live in the US where the right to protest is protected. /s
don’t forget our great first rate healthcare, best and most innovative in the world
is this irony?
I swear people on here think the right to protest is some magical talisman that protects you from the consequences of your actions.
If you break other laws the right to protest doesn’t somehow stop that being illegal - you cant just wear a free Palestine shirt and go shop lifting or break into someone’s house.
It is about not making protesting illegal in the absence of other crimes - like for example it is in Cuba where this person didn’t commit other crimes but is arrested simply for documenting.
I see you’ve been relying on the mainstream news narrative. There was nothing illegal about the protests until after the police started cracking down.
Then there was UCLA where pro-Israel counter protesters were dragging protesters out and beating them with sticks while an army of cops half a block away stood around with their thumbs up their asses.
It’s the neoliberal way to keep protesting legal while making it all but impossible to actually do so without breaking some minor law. Then the police come in huge numbers with riot gear, rubber bullets, and chemical agents that aren’t even legal in a warzone. Suddenly it’s a “violent” protest.
Neoliberals are always on the side of the protesters starting about 10 years after the protests are over. Until then they always wring their hands and whine about how the protest was done. This is all the exact shit they said about every protest of the civil rights movement.
Sure, yet even with your very biased telling of events it’s still nothing like the situation in Cuba
Also, if you have any evidence of an actual crime happening before police crackdowns start, I’d live to see it. (Not something lame like loitering). If you think I’m biased, then show me I’m wrong.
First of all, I never said it was. Second, the results are not that far off, it just looks different. Don’t forget that there are states where it’s now explicitly legal to drive over protesters, and I already mentioned protesters getting beaten with sticks while the police stood by and watched. The US has just privatized much of the oppression.
How could Joe Biden allow this to happen?
That’s satire, right? Cuba is a completely different country
That should be obvious.
It should be, but you know Poe’s law. People blame POTUS for ridiculous stuff.
It just hit the tankies too close to home.
The president has had over three years to cure cancer and he has done nothing. I’m planning to write in ‘Cancer’ this November because at least it has a proven track record.
*/s
Back up off me with that
Autocracies gonna autocrat. I’m not even going to read this because it’s not really news.
Most countries in the world do this stuff.
This is one of the reasons Havana is safe af and San Juan is high crime zone
safe but tolerates 0 dissent or unsafe and protests in the highway chased the governor off the island (and it’s still high crime and fucked)
Screw this.
Maybe they deserve the embargo.
Don’t you have a flag to wave over a razed hospital somewhere?
🥱
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