Havana/The Supreme People’s Court of Cuba ratified the five-year prison sentence against the artist Fernando Almenares Rivera, known as Nando OBDC, after rejecting the appeal presented by his defense.
The decision was notified to his family this week, according to 14ymedio Almenares’ mother, Eva Rivera: “Unfortunately they denied it. I imagined that was going to happen. I don’t expect anything better from this government.”
The appeal presented by the artist’s defense alleged a lack of foundation in the evaluation of the evidence in his previous ruling and errors in the appreciation of aggravating circumstances.
The sentence established that Almenares wrote messages on pieces of sheets intended to incite the population “to carry out actions against the government,” which he would have placed in visible spaces for the purpose of public dissemination. As an aggravating circumstance, it indicated that the accused had received money from abroad to carry out the action.
The court maintains that these acts constitute the crime of propaganda against the constitutional order, considering it proven that the accused acted with the purpose of “inciting against the social order and the socialist State”; and confirms the sentence “in all its parts and is declared final. No appeal is authorized against this sentence.”
The Court “confirms the sentence in all its parts and declares it final. No appeal is authorized against this sentence.”
After almost a year detained without chargeAlmenares had been sentenced on December 22, 2025 to five years of deprivation of liberty. The sentence reduced by one year the initial request of the Prosecutor’s Office, which requested six.
The process began with a search warrant issued on January 2, 2025 for an alleged crime of sabotage, but the record only includes the seizure of a Cuban flag, without evidence related to that charge.
Months later, the accusation was reformulated as propaganda against the constitutional order, based on the artistic action of painting slogans such as “Cuba First in the streets for human rights” on fragments of fabric and placing them in visible spaces. The court considered that these acts were intended to “disturb citizen tranquility” and “create discontent,” according to the sentenceto which he had access 14ymedio.
Relatives of the artist and civil organizations have questioned the validity of the process. Eva Rivera has reported errors in the basic data of the file and the absence of conclusive evidence. Cubalex points out contradictions in the process and demands the liberation of the artist. The Cuban Youth Dialogue Table qualified the trial, celebrated in November 2025, as “a farce” and condemned its political nature. Julie Trébault, director of Artists at Risk Connection, also expressed concern for the case: “The Cuban government’s sustained strategy of exiling or imprisoning dissenting artists must come to an end, Nando OBDC must be freed and free expression must prevail.”
The Cuban government’s sustained strategy of exiling or imprisoning dissenting artists must come to an end, Nando OBDC must be freed and free expression must prevail
Almenares remains imprisoned in the Cuba-Panama prison, in Güines, Mayabeque, a center for inmates with HIV, although he does not suffer from that disease, but rather sicklemia – a genetic disease that causes anemia – according to his mother. Last July went on a hunger strike in protest of their situation. His mother has also reported limitations in communication with the artist and his emotional and health deterioration.
The criminal figure of “propaganda against the institutional order”, incorporated into the 2022 Penal Code, penalizes any critical expression that the State considers “incitement against the social order or the socialist State”, without precisely defining what acts constitute that crime, which makes it a legal instrument to persecute dissent.
CTDC warned this Friday about a “brutal beating” suffered by the historic political prisoner Félix Navarro Rodríguez, 72 years old
The repression of the Cuban regime against opponents continues to worsen in the current context of crisis on the Island, with violence against political prisoners within the prison system. The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) warned this Friday about a “brutal beating” suffered by the historic political prisoner Félix Navarro Rodríguez, 72, in the maximum security prison of Agüica, in Matanzas, and warned that his life could be in danger due to his delicate state of health.
The organization held State Security and the prison authorities responsible for the attack and any consequences that may arise, and denounced that, after the attack, Navarro was transferred to a punishment cell, which aggravates his situation. Likewise, it demands his immediate release and guarantees for his physical integrity, while calling on the international community to act urgently.
The case was reported to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) by the Cuba Decides Complaint Centerwho presented an urgent appeal for the facts, as reported Martí News. According to Juan Carlos Vargas, director of Cuba Decide, the attack occurred on April 9, after a family visit, when the opponent was intercepted by prison officials, handcuffed and beaten while he was in a state of defenselessness.
Félix Navarro, vice president of the CTDC, Patmos 2024 winner, is today serving a nine-year prison sentence for his participation in the protests of July 11, 2021. In 2003 he was one of the 75 opponents and independent journalists who were sentenced during the Black Spring. His daughter Saily Navarro, a member of the Ladies in White, also suffers a politically motivated sentence.
