tras cumplir su condena de cinco años
After hours without any news of him, Anamely Ramos confirmed that he had been released and “taken to his father’s home.”
HAVANA TIMES – 11J political prisoner Aníbal Yasiel Palau Jacinto was released on Saturday night, activist Anamely Ramos reported. The 30-year-old had fully served a five-year prison sentence for participating in the massive protests of July 11, 2021, in the municipality of Güines, Mayabeque Province.
Before being released, Palau was transferred on Friday from Melena del Sur prison to Ganuza prison in San José de las Lajas, one day before the completion of his sentence. During those hours, he remained on a hunger strike in a punishment cell, barefoot and wearing only his underwear, to protest his continued detention, according to Martí Noticias. Authorities told his family that the transfer was intended to “protect him” from alleged comments made by other inmates at Melena prison.
After hours without any news of him, Anamely Ramos confirmed that he had been released and “taken to his father’s home.”
His release from prison came “after fully serving an unjust five-year prison sentence,” activist Tania Tase noted, adding that “this young man never stopped fighting for his rights, even under the worst conditions inside prison.”
On July 11, 2021, Palau “went out to protest peacefully, as thousands of Cubans did in scores of locations across the island. On Monday the 12th, he returned to the park to protest again,” his mother, Layda Yirkis Jacinto, told 14ymedio in 2023. He was arrested during that second day of demonstrations.
“They beat him, used electric shocks on him, and more than six members of the Black Berets attacked him from behind, along with plainclothes State Security officers carrying clubs. They beat him from head to toe—they even set dogs on him. He was disappeared for 17 days.”
For those events, he was charged with “assault,” “public disorder,” and “robbery with force.”
While in prison, Palau carried out several hunger strikes and was frequently confined to punishment cells. In October 2023, he was transferred from Quivicán prison—where he had participated in a hunger strike alongside several political prisoners—to Melena del Sur. There, he refused to wear shoes as a form of protest against the repression faced by July 11 prisoners inside Cuban prisons.
“They tried to force him to put on shoes before allowing him to make a phone call, but he gave up the call and remained barefoot,” his mother said.
Throughout his imprisonment, Palau’s health steadily deteriorated due to repeated hunger strikes and inadequate medical care. According to Prisoners Defenders, he suffers from gastritis, vascular migraine headaches, circulatory disorders, vision loss, and chronic kidney complications.
His release came on the fifth anniversary of the July 11, 2021 protests, a date on which human rights organizations reminded the public that hundreds of people remain imprisoned for taking part in those demonstrations, considered the largest anti-government protests in Cuba in more than six decades.
Among them are other political prisoners who have also completed their full sentences, including San Isidro Movement leader Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, whose sentence officially ended on July 9. However, he has remained missing since Thursday after being taken out of Guanajay Prison.
The only information available is that the artist spoke by telephone with Anamely Ramos last Thursday. According to the activist and art historian’s post on social media, Otero called “from a State Security cellphone, from an unknown number, and the call was on speakerphone.”
When asked how he was doing, the artist replied only, “Fine,” Ramos recounted, “using that tone we use to say we’re as well as can be expected under the circumstances.” However, he was unable to answer the next question: “Where are you?”
In a Facebook post, the activist explained that the humanitarian parole application filed so Otero Alcantara could travel to the United States “is still being processed” and that the artist “will remain in that unknown location until the matter is resolved.”
She concluded: “Luis’s friends are doing everything within our power. The Cuban regime wants him out of the country.”
Editor’s note: The Cuban government currently maintains over 1,200 documented political prisoners. Several hundred for peacefully protesting on July 11 and 12, 2021 like Anibal Palau Jacinto. The government claims to have “0” political prisoners.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times,
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