Deciphering the Cuban Regime's Transnational Repression

Capture screen of a video published by America Teve journalist Rolando Nápoles on Twitter. Nov 21. 2022.

Pro Cuban dictatorship's mobs assaulted Orlando Gutiérrez, leader of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, and other Cuban exiles and activists who were peacefully demonstrating in the city of Mexico.

Deciphering the Cuban Regime's Transnational Repression: A Desperate Response to the Growth of Cuban Activism in the Diaspora

This article originally appeared in ICN Diario in Spanish

Michael Lima Cuadra.

May 8, 2024.

For decades, the Cuban regime has employed its vast intelligence and diplomatic apparatus to perpetrate transnational repression, a common practice in authoritarian and hybrid regimes that seek to expand their influence beyond national borders by repressing dissidents, activists and journalists abroad. In the Cuban case, these practices have ranged from denial of entry to Cuba for activists, threats, character assassination, opening of fabricated court cases, surveillance and infiltration of the Cuban diaspora to the murder of exiles. Like other dictatorships, the Cuban regime practices transnational repression by perceiving pro-democracy movements and their international support among exiles as an existential threat.

Over the last decade, hundreds of cases of transnational repression perpetrated by regimes such as China, Russia, Iran, Turkey and others have been documented. However, little attention has been paid to the Cuban case, which is paradoxical given the marked increase in this practice carried out openly by the island's regime in recent years. In this article, I will discuss the growing systematic nature of this practice and contend that it represents a desperate response from the Cuban regime to abruptly curb the rise of activism and democratic mobilization among Cubans in the diaspora. These individuals support their compatriots' calls for democratic change and economic reform in Cuba.

Transnational Repression. From 27N to 11J.

For years, the Cuban regime has operated under the assumption that much of the global Cuban diaspora was self-censoring in the face of the threat of a ban on returning to Cuba. However, since late 2020, coinciding with the international mobilization of Cuban exiles in support of a hunger strike by a group of activists and artists protesting repression and subsequent protests in front of the Ministry of Culture, this dynamic has changed dramatically. This has led Cuban autocrats to intensify their methods of transnational repression.

This increase is related to the government's perceived risk of persistent pro-democracy protests in Cuba, which have fueled exile activism and the growth of widely popular influencers in Cuba and other parts of the world. The growing participation of young Cuban exiles in activism has broadened the influence of politically engaged exiles to other nations, extending beyond the traditional hub in South Florida. This trend is a major concern for the Cuban regime.

Open and public threats against Cuban exiles in the global diaspora

Since 2021, the Cuban regime has carried out open, public and visible threats of criminalization against Cubans in the global diaspora, which are in line with methods of transnational repression similarly used by other authoritarian regimes. On May 14, 2021, government spokespersons announced their intention to prosecute Cubans abroad who finance or support subversive acts.

Subsequently, on December 7, 2023, the "National List of persons and entities that have been subjected to criminal investigations and are wanted by Cuban authorities" was issued, which included pro-democracy leaders, YouTubers and organizations. Later, a pro-government website announced that the Cuban regime had submitted the list to Interpol for circulation as a red notice.

More recently, on April 25, 2024, Cuban authorities declared on national television their intention to prosecute Cuban activists in the diaspora for crimes that have been internationally condemned as politically motivated, such as "instigation to commit a crime" and "sedition", with the threat of life imprisonment and the death penalty. This measure represents a way for the regime to curb, through coercion, the call from Cuban exiles abroad for Cubans to take to the streets in legitimate demand of their fundamental human rights.

Cases and methods of transnational repression 

The Cuban regime manipulates Interpol red notices for political purposes in an attempt to criminalize and arrest the work of pro-democracy leaders, such as Dr. Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, coordinator of the Assembly for Cuban Resistance. Gutiérrez-Boronat seeks international solidarity with the cause of democracy in Cuba and promotes an end to European Union funding of the Cuban regime. He also urges the Paris Club to make any cancellation of Cuba's enormous foreign debt conditional on real democratic changes in the country.

The history of transnational repression against Dr. Boronat is extensive. In a possible collusion between the Cuban regime and Peruvian authorities, he and the president of the organization Mothers and Women Anti-Repression For Cuba (M.A.R.), Silvia Iriondo, were detained at the Lima airport in 2018 and threatened with extradition to Cuba while en route to the Summit of the Americas. The country's vice president prevented their extradition. In late November 2022, supporters of the Cuban regime in Mexico City physically attacked Orlando Gutierrez and other activists during a peaceful demonstration in front of the Cuban embassy, demanding the release of political prisoners.

Similarly, in 2018, Rosa María Payá, founder of the citizens' initiative Cuba Decide, denounced that she was detained in Lima, Peru, due to an international alert in her name issued by Interpol at the request of the Cuban regime. Journalists, such as Mario Pentón, have had their WhatsApp accounts hacked in retaliation for their work to expose the reality in Cuba to the world. Prominent activists, historians, professors and journalists such as Omara Ruíz Urquiola, Anamelys Ramos and Karla Pérez have been prevented by orders of the Cuban regime in recent years from being able to return to Cuba, in retaliation for their activism in demanding their rights and for being critical of the reality of misery and oppression on the island. On the other hand, Marta Beatriz Ferrer Cantillo, daughter of opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer, was prevented from entering Cuba in 2021. In Barcelona, individuals aligned with the interests of the Cuban regime threatened writer Abraham Jiménez Enoa and his son due to the critical analysis that Abraham wrote about the Cuban reality in his book 'La Isla Oculta' (The Hidden Island).

Conclusion

The rise of activism in the Cuban diaspora has unleashed systematic and open transnational repression by the Cuban regime, with global implications that should be of concern to democratic governments. This practice deprives individuals of the exercise of their human rights, maliciously attacks the reputation of activists, silencing their voice or attempting to do so, and coercing them to refrain from full participation in the debate and public life of their host countries.

As a result, in many cases they are forced to practice self-censorship and distance themselves from the democratic and electoral processes in their countries of residence. In addition, transnational repression, considered a form of foreign interference, reveals the Cuban regime's operational capacity to infiltrate communities and institutions in democratic countries, carrying out operations of persecution, surveillance and espionage against human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and legislators.

In the face of increasing transnational repression, democracies must push for clear laws and legal definitions on transnational repression, as well as train government officials on these practices and their impact on diaspora communities. Without effective measures and significant political cost to perpetrators, transnational repression will continue to be a preferred strategy of authoritarian regimes. This will erode citizen confidence in democratic institutions, violating human rights and national sovereignty.

Photo of Omara Ruiz Urquiola at the Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida posted on her Facebook account on December 24. 2022.

Urquiola was issued a boarding pass by Southwest Airlines and even allowed to reach the boarding gate, but informed at the last minute that she was once again banned from returning to Cuba, her country of birth.. As of Dec 2022 Urquiola had been banned four times by the Cuban government from returning to Cuba.

“For the fourth time, they don't let me return home; for the fourth time, American airlines facilitate the Cuban government's violation of my rights as a Cuban. This time they allowed me to reach the boarding gate; it was even more cruel, but I am all too familiar with that. The Cuban government has power here to bypass U.S. immigration controls, which I passed through without difficulty. I will continue [fighting back] as long as I breathe." Photo and quote from Omara Ruiz Urquiola’s Facebook

Photo/Karla Perez at Tocumen international airport. Panama City, March 18th 2021. Photo: El Mundo CR.

In March 2021, Karla Perez, a Cuban journalist, was banned from returning to Cuba. Karla took a flight from Costa Rica to Cuba with a layover at Tocumen Airport in Panama. It was there she was informed that she could not return. In 2017, Karla fled Cuba after being expelled from Marta Abreu Central University of Las Villas (UCLV) in Santa Clara, Cuba, where she studied journalism, in retaliation for her critical articles published online and her contact with the Somos Mas organization. In Costa Rica, she resumed her journalism career and graduated in December 2020 from Universidad Latina in San Jose.

Photo/José Daniel Ferrer’s Twitter/X Account. Jan 12, 2021.

“At #Austin, #Texas airport, American Airlines has just notified my daughter Martha Beatriz Ferrer Cantillo that she cannot travel to #Cuba because immigration has issued an order preventing her from entering her country. My daughter has been unable to see her daughter, siblings, and father for 2 years and 7 months.”

Photo EFE/Archive. Via Diario las Américas September 2018.

Rosa María Payá, founder of the CubaDecide initiative, denounced that she was detained for approximately an hour at an Immigration checkpoint at Lima International Airport, Peru, due to a supposed order issued by Interpol, which she attributed to the Cuban regime's State Security. See also Payá’s Tweet from Sept 19, 2018.

Silvia Iriondo and Dr. Orlando Gutiérrez detained at Lima Airport. April 2018. Photo/Martí Noticias

Iriondo, president of MAR for Cuba, and Gutiérrez Boronat, Secretary General of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, arrived in Lima ifrom Miami to attend events and conferences related to the Summit of the Americas, which takes place in Peru.

"We have had our passports taken away based on the fact that our names are on a list provided by the Castro regime," Dr. Gutiérrez told Martí Noticias from the Lima airport terminal.

After four hours of waiting in a lounge at Lima International Airport, during which they were questioned by authorities about the purpose of their trip, their passports were returned to them, and they were allowed entry into the country.

Among other activities, Iriondo and Gutiérrez plan to attend a panel organized by Justicia Cuba, made up of international jurists, about the crimes against humanity committed by the Castro regime.

Photo EFE/Martí. Noticias. April 2015

Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, from the Cuban Democratic Directorate, during the altercation with the Castroist mobs at the Cuban embassy in Panama.

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Michael Lima is a human rights activist and an expert in Cuban and Latin American history and politics. He has lectured on modern Latin American history, holds a Master’s degree and is a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American History from the University of Toronto. He is also the founder of Democratic Spaces, an NGO that builds solidarity in Canada with human rights defenders and civil society in Cuba.