Cuba's communist regime has sentenced dissident José Manuel Barreiro Luco to two and a half years in prison for privately sharing anti-regime memes with his family, Martí Noticias reports. Reported on wednesday.
Barreiro Luco is a 52-year-old barber who lives in the city of Cienfuegos and has been a member of a local opposition group, the Civil Movement for Reconciliation and Reconciliation in Cuba (MCRR), since 2010.
The Cuban dissident was initially arrested in Aguada de Pasajeros, Cienfuegos, on June 15, 2023. At the time, Castro regime authorities charged him with crimes against national security and ties to alleged “counter-revolutionary” groups.
Jamal Pérez Aguiar, the dissident's nephew, explained on Facebook. post On Saturday, the Castro regime tried to fabricate other crimes that the court did not acknowledge after his uncle “thoroughly proved his innocence,” but he remained in prison for six months before being placed under house arrest on December 30.
Barreiro Luco Maintained In a private WhatsApp group chat titled “Family,” Castro and other relatives privately exchanged memes criticizing senior members of his government, including President Miguel Díaz-Canel, the regime's iconic figure.
Maruti News explanation Barreiro Luco was tried in a Castro regime court on Monday and found guilty of “committing defamatory and offensive acts affecting the honor and integrity of important figures of the Cuban Revolution,” including Díaz-Canel.
Administration prosecutors said Barreiro Luco shared images in the messaging group with insults aimed at Diaz-Canel, nonagenarian communist dictator Raul Castro and his brother, the late murderous dictator Fidel Castro.
“It was a family WhatsApp. [police investigators] “After confiscating the phones, the police learned that the memes were not published, but were exchanged between brothers, cousins, family members and uncles,” MCRR president Juan Alberto de la Nuez told Martí Noticias.
“At trial they failed to prove that the memes were public. This is unfair,” he added.
Jose Raul Gallego, a Cuban journalist living in Mexico, told Martí Noticias that Barreiro Luco's case was an example of extreme human rights violations in Cuba.
“We're talking about someone who is seeking two and a half years in prison for sharing images implicating regime leaders in a private family group of 11 people,” Gallego said.
“In other words, how extreme is the persecution, abuse and paranoia that you can incarcerate someone in a closed environment where they have no influence, for something they share with their family?” he asked.
Galigo on Facebook post, stress There is no need to go to Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan or anywhere else “to illustrate what it means to live with flagrant violations of the most basic human rights” and “to show the extent to which dictatorial regimes can go.”
The Cuban journalist said Barreiro Luco's case was not an exception but “a norm that has been applied for 65 years.”
“Tens of thousands of people have been jailed, exiled, punished, beaten or threatened for a simple comment, a joke or saying out loud or half-heartedly what many people are thinking,” he noted.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan author documenting life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter. here.
