Human Rights Have to Be Respected in Cuba!

In our capacity as members of the group of Cuban lawyers with the largest number of members
and established for the longest time, the Cuban Agramontist lawyers have decided to issue this
statement in light of the historical events that Cuba has experienced in recent days, as well as in
the face of the plans announced by the Castro regime to use the instruments of law as an
essential tool in repressing citizens who have expressed their dissatisfaction with the system
that our country suffers from.

In the first place, we express our deep admiration for the thousands and thousands of fellow
citizens who came out last Sunday, July 11, in numerous locations throughout our Archipelago,
to demand freedom and to proclaim that they are not afraid.

Second, we express our rejection of the absolutely rigid attitude adopted by the country's
authorities. The brutal repression, the systematic beatings, the use of firearms against people
who only speak, all this constitutes unspeakable abuses, which we reject with all decision. How
to admit the words of the head of the regime when he expresses that "the combat order is
given"! "Combat" against whom?! Because we are not talking about a foreign invasion, but
about compatriots who only express their disagreement!

This use of physical force and brutality is now joined by the use, abuse and manipulation of the
instruments of law. The day before last, in a program broadcast on television in evening prime
time (after the news and before the soap opera), a transparent and crude attempt was
perpetrated to instill terror in the vast majority of citizens who yearn for the realization of
democratic change in the country. Representatives of the Power, including one from the
Attorney General's Office, argued to viewers that there could be criminal sentences lasting
several decades. The objective, obviously, is none other than to terrorize possible future
protesters, and make them renounce their legitimate right to express themselves peacefully
against a national situation with which they do not even remotely agree.

Legal principles are also violated when announcing the claim to punish for committing the
alleged crime of "incitement"; In view of what really happened, this amounts to the claim to
criminalize expressing a thought, thereby violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and even the Cuban Constitution itself. The same can be said of the announcement of
penalizing the act of organizing the protests, when it is evident that they arose spontaneously;
and if a person were to be found responsible, they would have to be found among the Castro
authorities themselves, for their irresponsible and anti-popular actions. Finally, we consider it
an outrage that some participants’ use of the slogan "Homeland and Life" (“Patria y vida”) is
threatened as an incriminating factor.

In all this context, alleged violations of property rights and some other common crimes that
certain citizens may have carried out are magnified in order to pretend that such conduct was
the rule in the events of last Sunday and subsequent days. This constitutes a vile slander that
we Agramontists denounce without hesitation. This type of criminal activity in which some
unconscious compatriots may have engaged, is totally marginal, and would not obscure in any
way the historic importance of the brave wave of protests that has shaken our country. Against
those citizens, there would be elements to prosecute them, but in a serene and adequate
manner, as is consistent with the "rule of law" that, according to the current Constitution, Cuba
has today. Not with fierce threats on television or offers to impose brutal penalties on them.

In the midst of the repression, we have heard of numerous citizens who are virtually
disappeared. The magnitude of the government onslaught is such that many loved ones of
those arrested do not know where they are at the moment. Such a thing is unacceptable.
Agramontista lawyers residing in Cuba reaffirm our constant willingness to present writs of
habeas corpus on behalf of the detainees and to provide all the legal advice we can.

In the meantime, we demand that the country's authorities respect each and every one of the
human rights attending those of us who reside in the Archipelago; in particular, the inalienable
rights to peaceful protest and the free expression of thought.

Havana, July 16, 2021

By the Agramontista Current:

Serafin Martinez
René Gómez Manzano
Maybell Padilla Perez
Yuniesky San Martín Garcés
Hildebrando Chaviano Montes
Lázaro G. Godínez González
Eduardo Ortiz Ramirez
Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces