Havana/The political prisoner of 11J Aníbal Yasiel Palau Jacinto was released this Saturday night, reported activist Anamely Ramos. The 30-year-old man fully served a five-year sentence for participating in the massive demonstrations on July 11, 2021, in the municipality of Güines, province of Mayabeque.
Before being released, Palau Jacinto was taken from the Melena del Sur prison on Friday to the Ganuza prison, in San José de las Lajas, one day before the end of his sentence. During those hours, Palau Jacinto remained on hunger strike in an isolation cell, barefoot and in his underwear, in protest of his detention, he reported. Martí News. The authorities justified the transfer to the family under the argument of “protecting” him from alleged comments from other inmates within Melena.
After hours without hearing from the young man, Anamely Ramos confirmed that he had already been released and “taken to his father’s house.”
His release from the penitentiary occurred “after fully serving an unjust sentence of five years of deprivation of liberty,” said activist Tania Tasé, who added that “this young man did not stop fighting for his rights for a single day, even in the worst conditions in prison.”
“This young man did not stop fighting for his rights for a single day, even in the worst conditions in prison”
On July 11, 2021, Palau Jacinto “went out to demonstrate peacefully, like thousands of Cubans did in more than 300 points across the island. On Monday the 12th he went out again to protest in the park,” said his mother. Layda Yirkis Jacinto to 14ymedio in 2023. His arrest occurred on that second day: “They beat him, gave him electric shocks and more than six black berets attacked him from behind, in addition to State Security officers dressed in civilian clothes with sticks. They beat him from head to toe, they even threw dogs at him. They disappeared for 17 days.”
For these events he was accused of “attack”, “public disorder” and “robbery with force”.
In prison, Palau Jacinto carried out several hunger strikes and was frequently held in punishment cells. In October 2023, he was transferred from Quivicán prison – where he carried out a hunger strike with several political prisoners – to Melena del Sur. In that prison, he refused to wear shoes as a form of protest against the repression against the July 11 prisoners inside the prisons. “They tried to force him to put on shoes so they could use his right to a phone call, but he gave up the call and stayed barefoot,” his mother said.
Throughout his sentence, Palau Jacinto’s health experienced a progressive deterioration due to hunger strikes and lack of adequate medical care. The young man suffers from gastritis, migraine vascular headache, circulatory disorders, vision loss and chronic kidney complications, according to Prisoners Defenders.
The liberation of Palau Jacinto occurred on the fifth anniversary of the protests of July 11, 2021
The release of Palau Jacinto occurred on the fifth anniversary of the protests of July 11, 2021, a date on which human rights organizations recalled that hundreds of people remain imprisoned for having participated in those demonstrations, considered the largest anti-government mobilizations recorded in Cuba in more than six decades.
Along with him there are other political prisoners who have also fully served their sentence, such as the leader of the San Isidro Movement Luis Manuel Otero Alcántarawho officially completed his sentence on July 9. However, his whereabouts remain unknown since Thursday, after he was taken from Guanajay Prison.
The only thing that is known about the artist is that he communicated last Thursday with Anamely Ramos. According to what the activist and art historian herself published on her networks, Alcántara called her “from a State Security cell phone, unknown number, and the call was on speakerphone.”
When asked how he was doing, the artist responded only “good,” Ramos said, “with that tone that we use to indicate that we are as good as possible, given the circumstances.” However, he could not answer the second question asked: “Where are you?”
The activist explained in a post on Facebook that the parole request for Alcántara to travel to the United States “is still in process” and that the artist “will be in that unknown place until it is resolved.” And he asserted: “Luis’s friends are doing everything in our power. The Cuban regime wants him out.”
