Mayelín Rodríguez Prado was arrested after uploading images to Facebook of a small demonstration in Nuevitas in August 2022
At the age of 22, Mayelín Rodríguez Prado received the heaviest of the sentences the Cuban government handed down to a group of 13 people who demonstrated in August 2022 in the municipality of Nuevitas, in central Cuba. Prado, who is the mother of a little girl, will serve 15 years in prison for publishing the protests through the social network Facebook.
Prado recorded the moment in which Cuban police beat three girls during the demonstration, as well as other repressive actions against protestors. The young woman, whose daughter at the time was less than a year old, was detained at her home after the protest and held in solitary confinement at a State Security facility.
The judicial sentence issued by the Municipal Court of Camagüey, to which the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) had access, states that the court agreed to punish Prado as “author of an intentional and consummated crime of enemy propaganda of a continuous nature” and “author of an intentional and consummated crime of sedition.” The court also announced sentences of between four and 14 years for 12 other participants in the demonstration for the same crimes. According to the Cuban Penal Code, sedition is a “crime against the internal security of the State,” and anyone who “tumultuously and by means of express or tacit agreement, using violence, disturbs the socialist order” can be prosecuted on that charge.
It seems the convergent evolution of government is authoritarianism. All governments seem to eventually move towards it.
It takes efforts to have a democracy
If you can keep it
“Keep your democracy. I saw democracy failing somewhere and being displaced by authoritarianism so I’m just opting for going straight to authoritarianism. I am smort but, also, do not trust me with the ability to influence my own society. I also don’t see the irony of expressing here how my society should be run (even though I’m anti-democracy).”
Cuba is overall liberalising, just have a look at the gazillion of reforms after Castro. OTOH authoritarian habits die hard especially in places such as courts backing up the “thin blue line”.
I frequently think this too, but then remember that progress towards less authoritarianism does occasionally actually happen. For example the USA PATRIOT Act used to be everyone’s example of authoritarianism in the US, but that has by now expired. For another example, the Snowden revelations actually led to everyone’s devices and communications getting encrypted. When is the last time you heard about random small people being sued for copyright infringement by the RIAA or MPAA or something?
For less recent examples, consider the 1989-1991 fall of communism in Eastern Europe, making those countries a lot less authoritarian.
When the world gets better, we tend not to notice as much as when it gets worse.
Has anyone heard about FISA being expanded?
I think you’re one step too high…
Humans seem to thrive being controlled by authoritarian figures. If you look across the planet these people are getting voted in by someone.
The first one was God.
A third take: Authoritarian groups have been historically successful in wiping out (usually by force) less authoritarian groups and their methods of organizing.