«The regime has to account for its crimes»

Cuban American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart demanded the immediate and unconditional liberation of the Yoruba Loreto Hernández García priest, Cuban political prisoner imprisoned after the protests of July 11, 2021.

«The Cuban regime has to account for its crimes,» said Díaz-Balart in an X publication in which he asked for the rest of the political prisoners who serve sentences in the island’s prisons.

«I am seriously concerned about Loreto Hernández García, my dear friend and political expreasing Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez,» he wrote.

«Loreto has been imprisoned since he participated in the protests of July 11, and his family is alarmed because his health is deteriorating,» he added.

Díaz-Balart recalled that «the brutal regime in Cuba continues to imprison brave pro-democracy activists who dare to raise their voice against him.»

Hernández García, a member of the «Yorubas Free Association of Cuba», was sentenced to 7 years in prison for demonstrating in Placetas, Villa Clara, during the massive demonstrations of 11j in Cuba, when thousands of people took to the streets to ask for freedom.

In recent statements to Martí News his wife, the activist Donaida Pérez Pasiroreleased as part of an agreement of the Cuban regime with the Catholic Church, considered as a «cruelty» the fact that her husband has not been put on probation.

The government said it would release 553 prisoners after conversations with the Vatican. Independent organizations account for 158 political prisoners released after the announcement.