US sanctions Cuban officials over dissident's detention

The US has imposed sanctions on four Cuban judicial officials for their role in jailing a peaceful protester in 2020, citing gross human rights violations and lack of judicial independence.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the United States will sanction three judges and one prosecutor from Cuba for their involvement in the imprisonment of Luis Robles, a political dissident arrested in December 2020.

Robles was detained in Havana while peacefully holding a sign that said “Liberty” and “No more Repression.” Authorities later charged him with disobedience and enemy propaganda, according to his relatives and human rights organizations.

Rubio condemned the arrest as arbitrary, saying that the legal officials acted as agents of the regime rather than upholding judicial independence. The sanctions will bar the four—judges Gladys Maria Padrón Canals, Maria Elena Fornari Conde, Juan Sosa Orama, and prosecutor Yanaisa Matos Legrá—from entering the United States.

“These officials are complicit in unfair trials that punish people for peacefully expressing their views,” Rubio said in a statement.

Robles was released in January 2025 as part of a prisoner release deal involving over 500 detainees, brokered by the Vatican and the Biden administration.

Though Cuba’s 2019 constitution recognizes the right to protest, lawmakers have failed to pass legislation to define and protect that right, leaving demonstrators vulnerable to arrest.

The Cuban government has not officially responded to the sanctions but regularly accuses the US of encouraging protests to destabilize the country.

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