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Cuba Dispatch
26JUL

Ten years sought for a blackout protest

1 min read
10:44UTC

Three UNPACU women, held 18 months since a November 2024 blackout cacerolazo at Palmarito de Cauto, faced prosecution demands of 10, 8 and 5 years, with a verdict due on 1 July.

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PoliticsDeveloping
Key takeaway

Cuban prosecutors sought up to 10 years for three UNPACU women over a 2024 blackout protest.

Three women from UNPACU (the Patriotic Union of Cuba, an opposition group), Mileidis Maceo Quiñones, Edilkis León Giraudis and Oneida Quiñones, were tried at Palma Soriano, near Santiago de Cuba, over a cacerolazo (a pot-banging protest) during an all-day blackout at Palmarito de Cauto on 15 November 2024 1. Prosecutors sought 10, 8 and 5 years; the heaviest charge, against Maceo Quiñones, is "atentado", assault on authority .

Oneida Quiñones, who has a missing hand, diabetes and hypertension, is held under house arrest rather than in prison on health grounds. All three had spent 18 months in pre-trial detention, and a verdict was due on 1 July. The charges turn a blackout protest, the same grievance now driving cacerolazos across the island, into a decade of prison sought for one participant.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Three women in eastern Cuba, all members of the opposition group UNPACU, were on trial for banging pots and pans in the street during a blackout in November 2024, a common form of protest in Cuba called a cacerolazo. Prosecutors want ten years for one, eight for another, and five for the third, who has a physical disability. All three have already spent 18 months in jail awaiting trial. A verdict was due on 1 July 2026, but as of that date no outcome had been reported.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Cuba classifies protest-adjacent offences under crimes against state authority (atentado) and public order categories carrying sentencing ranges designed for actual violence against officials, so a cacerolazo, banging pots during a blackout, can be charged and sentenced on the same scale as a physical assault.

The 18-month pre-trial span stems from Cuba's criminal procedure allowing extended provisional detention pending investigation without the fixed judicial-review deadlines that would force an earlier resolution, a structural gap rather than a decision specific to this case.

What could happen next?
  • Risk

    If sentenced at the terms prosecutors sought, Maceo Quiñones would face ten years for a protest offence with no allegation of injury to any official.

  • Meaning

    The 18-month pre-trial span itself, independent of any eventual sentence, is the kind of delay human-rights monitors already treat as a due-process complaint on its own.

Sources:14ymedio
Mentions:UNPACU →Palma Soriano →Palmarito de Cauto →Santiago de Cuba →Cuba →OCDH →
First Reported In

Update #9 · Cuba's dollar reform, no bank to clear it

14ymedio· 1 Jul 2026
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Causes and effects
This Event
Ten years sought for a blackout protest
Prosecutors want a decade in prison for a pot-banging blackout protest, with the verdict due 1 July.
Led to
Three women face years for a blackout protest
The Palma Soriano trial advances the prosecution the Santiago fiscalia sought on 5 June.
Occurred 5 Jun 2026
Read story →
Cuban court jails two UNPACU protest women
The 1 July trial of the three UNPACU women preceded their 19 July sentencing.
Occurred 19 Jul 2026
Read story →
Different Perspectives
Spain (Foreign Ministry and hotel investors)
Spain (Foreign Ministry and hotel investors)
Madrid has worked to shield Spanish hotel operators exposed to Cuba, and OFAC's General Licences 2 and 3 winding down the Guernsey-listed CEIBA Investments fund give those investors a defined exit rather than an abrupt block. Spain's stake in managing an orderly wind-down, not confronting the designation itself, keeps it distinct from Havana's collective-punishment framing.
Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX)
Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX)
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla called the 23 July designations "castigo colectivo" and defended the medical missions as protecting healthcare access for patients in the countries where Cuban doctors serve, without addressing the evasion allegation against Coral Maritima directly.
US Treasury (OFAC) and State Department
US Treasury (OFAC) and State Department
OFAC designated Cuba's medical-missions operators and named the Mariel-Coral Maritima transfer as GAESA sanctions evasion on 23 July, characterisations Washington has not independently substantiated in public documents reviewed. The administration frames the wave as closing hard-currency channels sector by sector, following the same pattern applied to tourism and financial clearing in June and July.
Human rights monitors (OCDH and Prisoners Defenders)
Human rights monitors (OCDH and Prisoners Defenders)
OCDH's 14 July dictamen named the specific offices responsible for holding Otero Alcántara past his sentence-expiry date; Prisoners Defenders counted 1,306 political prisoners, including 40 detained minors, on 9 July. Both oppose the Cuban government's account without endorsing Washington's sanctions instrument as a remedy.
US State Department
US State Department
Secretary Rubio said Cuba 'continues to ally itself with America's enemies' and framed the 13 July designations as deploying 'every tool at our disposal', now citing forced-labour export to Angola for the first time. These quotes rest on cached web snippets; state.gov was unreachable this run and could not be directly verified.
Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla called the 13 July designation package 'criminal and genocidal' and said 'Cuba is not a threat and US intelligence agencies know it'. State media frame the 16 July gas-price rise as a direct consequence of the intensifying blockade, though Havana has not disclosed its own container-import shift dated 3 July.