A human-rights group in Miami says it has identified at least 20 Cubans accused of taking part in crackdowns on protesters, harassing dissidents or collaborating with the government’s state security who recently arrived in the United States during the latest exodus from the island.
The group includes police and Interior Ministry officers, two government prosecutors, officials in charge of the controversial government medical missions abroad, a university professor, a state media reporter and several alleged informants or collaborators of the Cuban government’s state security.
The names and photos of these Cubans were made public during a press conference on Thursday by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba in Miami.
Among those named is Lyomaris Vara Fuentes, the prosecutor in the trial of Karina Galvez, an economist and member of the opposition group Convivencia who was sentenced to three years for the group’s political activities. Also included are two former police officers and sector chiefs in Corralillo, in the central province of Las Villas, and San Nicolás de Bari, in Mayabeque province.
“Not a week went by in which someone did not denounce people who were repressors in Cuba and who, according to them, are now here,” said former Martinoticias journalist Rolando Cartaya, who compiled the list along with security expert and blog editor Luis Dominguez.
Cartaya and Dominguez told the Miami Herald they had compiled the report based on claims made by some of the victims of the alleged acts, and that they were able to partially verify some information but not all. At least in nine cases, the person published photos on social media showing they were in the United States, Cartaya said.
Cartaya and Dominguez believe these individuals were among the more than 300,000 Cubans that came to the United States in the last two fiscal years, most using Nicaragua as the starting point of a land trip to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Some of the people providing the tips are well-known dissidents and activists, many still living on the island. At least three living in the United States have given U.S. authorities signed affidavits with their allegations, Cartaya said.
Many of the people who provided the tips were outraged that people involved in harassing the opposition — some of them even accused of physically assaulting anti-government protesters during islandwide demonstrations in 2021 — were now posting pictures of their lives in the United States.
The police officer in Corralillo “repressed many people and used dogs to track people who wanted to leave Cuba on a raft,” said Idael Ramos Rodríguez, a Corralillo resident who emigrated in May this year, during the press conference.
The newly released list is part of a broader effort to track Cubans involved in human-rights violations and repression against government critics on the island whose information is published on the website represorescubanos.com. The database researchers have also identified officials in charge of security services, prisons and military posts in Cuba.
Over the years, many former government officials and even high-ranking members of the Cuban military have defected to the United States. Many others or their family members have quietly emigrated too, and Dominguez has outed several cases in his blog Cuba al Descubierto.
At the press conference, Dominguez said some of the people included on the list may have lied to U.S. immigration authorities about what they did in Cuba and could be subject to an investigation. He hopes the list has a deterrence effect and forces government supporters on the island to think twice before committing human rights violations.
“In a future Cuba, with real courts, they may have to pay for what they did,” he said.
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