Thanks to your support and taking action, this petition to expel Cuba from the UN Human Rights Council has amassed over 1,500 signatures. Please share it with others.
The Communist dictatorship in Cuba remains a brutal system that continues to conduct political show trials, issuing long prison sentences, and over a thousand Cubans have been jailed for peacefully protesting since July 2021.
The Cuban dictatorship has a history of killing Cuban nationals.
On February 23, 2010 Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a Cuban prisoner of conscience and human rights defender, died in a Cuban prison following years of torture.
On February 24, 1996 at 3:21pm and 3:27pm two Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down by a Mig-29 on Raul Castro's orders killing Armando Alejandre Jr. (age 45), Carlos Alberto Costa ( age 29), Mario Manuel de la Peña ( age 24) and Pablo Morales (age 29).
The dictatorship continues to murder Cubans to the present day.
We remain deeply concerned that the U.S. Embassy in Havana repeated the Castro regime talking point that a massacre that killed fleeing Cuban refugees on October 28, 2022 was an "accident." The families of the victims, and survivors courageously spoke out, and continue to be subjected to state security's threats to be silenced.
The dictatorship shows no signs of reform, but rather doubling down on repression.
The penal code in Cuba on December 1, 2022 became more draconian. The dictatorship’s new Penal Code was announced in February 2022, approved in May 2022, and came into force on the first of December.
Amnesty International on December 2, 2022 reported on its severity calling it "a chilling prospect for 2023," highlighting the expansion of the death penalty to 23 crimes, and punishing expression for even longer prison sentences.
PEN America and PEN International on February 16, 2023 condemned the temporary detention of at least six artists and activists in Cuba on February 15th, "including Yordanka Battle Moré, Adelth Bonne Gamboa, Rosmery Almeda (known as Alma Poet), Yamilka Lafita (known as Lara Crofs), Yulier Rodríguez, and Arián Cruz (known as Tata Poet). The artists were arrested and detained for several hours before being released. PEN America and PEN International denounced the detentions as part of the Cuban government’s continued targeting of artists for exercising their fundamental right to free expression."
It is for these reasons, and many more that we continue to call for the expulsion of Cuba from the UN Human Rights Council.
It is also why on February 23, 2023 at 3:00pm we will be gathering at Lafayette Park, across from the White House to remember, demand justice for Castroism's victims, and call for freedom for all Cubans. From Lafayette Park we will march to the Cuban Embassy and hold a vigil for the victims of Castroism.
Please continue to spread the word.