San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Dozens on trial after crackdown on mass protests
Detained protesters in Cuba could get up to 30 years in prison as they face the largest and most punitive mass trials on the island since the early years of the revolution.
Prosecutors last week put on trial more than 60 citizens charged with crimes, including sedition, for taking part in demonstrations against the country’s economic crisis over the summer, said human rights activists and relatives of those detained.
Those being prosecuted include at least five minors as young as 16. They are among the more than 620 detainees who have faced or are slated to face trial for joining the biggest outburst of popular discontent against the Communist
government since it took power in 1959.
The severity of the charges is part of a concerted effort by the government to deter further public expressions of discontent, activists said. The crackdown also dashed lingering hopes of a gradual liberalization under President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who in 2018 replaced Fidel Castro’s brother Raul to become Cuba’s first leader from outside the Castro family since 1959.
Cuba exploded into unexpected protest July 11, when thousands of people, many from the country’s poorest neighborhoods, marched through cities and towns to denounce spiraling inflation, power outages and worsening food and medicine shortages.
The scenes of mass discontent — shared widely over
Cubans gather outside the Capitol complex in Havana during a July demonstration to denounce spiraling inflation, power failures and worsening food and medicine shortages.
social media — shattered the idea promoted by the Cuban leadership that popular support for the governing Communist Party endured, despite economic hardship.
After being initially caught by surprise, the government responded with the biggest crackdown in decades, sending military units to crush the protests. More than 1,300 demonstrators were detained,
according to human rights organization Cubalex and to Justice J11, an umbrella organization of Cuban civil society groups that monitors the aftermath of the summer’s unrest.
The Cuban government did not respond to requests for comment sent through the foreign media office.
Previous crackdowns tended to focus on the relatively
small groups of political activists. In contrast, the mass trials are, for the first time in decades, targeting people who largely had no connection to politics before they stepped out of their homes to join the crowds calling for change, said historians and activists.