Cuban prosecutors announced that they had sentenced 74 people to prison terms of up to 18 years for participating in anti-government demonstrations in July 2021, bringing the number of people sentenced to 488 years in prison for participating in those protests.

The statement clarifies that these final judgments were handed down by the courts in Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Matanzas against 74 defendants who were convicted of the crimes of sedition, disturbing the peace, insulting and attacking the authorities, noting that two the other defendants were released. It states that 56 of the 74 convicted were sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 10 to 18 years, and the remaining 18 convicts, including 12 minors, were sentenced to community service.

The prosecutor’s office stressed that the convicts “undermined the constitutional order and stability of our socialist state.”

On July 11 and 12, 2021, thousands of Cubans reportedly took to the streets in many cities across the country in protest demonstrations during which they chanted “We are hungry, freedom and down with dictatorship.” The demonstrations killed and injured dozens of people and arrested about 1,300 people, hundreds of whom are still in detention, according to human rights sources.