22OCT

Cuba now holds 1,351 political prisoners

2 min read

17:12UTC

Prisoners Defenders added 50 names and recorded 38 releases in September, leaving a record 1,351 political prisoners in Cuba.

← Back to Cuba opens oilfields, US cuts dollar routes Jump to analysis ↓

PoliticsDeveloping

Key takeaway

Prisoners Defenders counted a record 1,351 political prisoners in Cuba at the end of September.

Prisoners Defenders, the Madrid-based group that registers Cuba's political prisoners, published its September census on 15 October⁠¹. It added 50 people and recorded 38 releases during the month, a turnover of 88 against about 51 in July. That left 1,351 political prisoners at the end of September, a record in its series. The report highlighted the jailing of a pastor after he called a public prayer.

The group has documented releases conditioned on exile before; Lowdown has not confirmed whether any September release carried that condition. Prisoners Defenders said a denial-of-service attack hit its website and database minutes after it posted the census.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Prisoners Defenders is a human rights group based in Madrid, Spain. Every month it counts how many people Cuba holds in prison for political reasons, such as protesting or criticising the government. Its September count, published on 15 October, found 1,351 such prisoners, the most it has ever recorded. During September 50 people were added to the list and 38 were released. Cuba's government denies holding political prisoners. The group says its website was attacked minutes after it published the figures.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Cuba's criminal code treats public protest, contempt of authority and unauthorised assembly as crimes, so dissent leads to prosecution rather than fines. The jailing of a pastor after he called a public prayer, which the group's report singled out, follows that route.

Blackouts and shortages have produced repeated street protests, and each wave adds new prosecutions. The three women tried at Palma Soriano over a blackout protest show the pattern.

Forced exile as a release condition removes people from the register without a change in policy, which makes the monthly count a measure of flows as much as of stock.

What could happen next?

Consequence
The register will keep rising while arrests outpace releases, regardless of how many people are freed each month.
Risk
If the 38 releases include exile conditions, the turnover reflects removals from Cuba rather than any easing of repression.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: In 2010 and 2011 talks brokered by Cuba's Catholic Church led to the release of the 52 remaining Black Spring prisoners from 2003, most of whom were sent to Spain with their families. Release into exile shrank the prisoner count without ending the practice that filled it.

Counter-parallel: In January 2025, as the Biden administration moved to take Cuba off the US terrorism list, Havana agreed to free 553 prisoners. Opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer was among those freed and was arrested again in April 2025, showing that releases can reverse once the deal that prompted them collapses.

Consensus view: Prisoners Defenders, led from Madrid by Javier Larrondo, counts people jailed for political reasons case by case through relatives and contacts on the island. Its census rises when arrests outpace releases, and September's 50 additions outnumbered July's 36, even as 38 people left the list.

Counter-view: Cuba's government rejects the category outright, describing those listed as common criminals or paid agents of the US. On Havana's account the census measures the reach of a foreign-funded lobby, not the state's use of prison against dissent, and it disputes every name rather than the total.

Key tension: Whether September's 38 releases were completed sentences, parole or releases conditioned on exile, since each reading means something different for the same total.

Sources:Prisoners Defenders

Mentions:Cuba →Havana →Catholic Church →Madrid →Spain →Prisoners Defenders →Palma Soriano →

First Reported In

Update #15 · Cuba opens oilfields, US cuts dollar routes

Prisoners Defenders· 22 Oct 2026

Read original →

Causes and effects

Caused by

Political prisoner count climbs to 1,327

The September census of 1,351 follows the 1,327 Prisoners Defenders recorded at 31 July.

Occurred 12 Aug 2026

Read story →

This Event

Cuba now holds 1,351 political prisoners

The register keeps growing even as dozens leave it each month, so releases are not shrinking Cuba's political prisoner count.

Different Perspectives

UN General Assembly

The Assembly passed last year's resolution against the US embargo by 165 votes to 7, with 12 abstentions, and votes again on 28 October. That count is the baseline against which Havana's lobbying claims and Washington's pressure will be measured.

Mexican Navy (Secretaría de Marina)

A Mexican Navy team inspected Grace at Progreso and found fuel in its ballast tanks, according to the US Coast Guard. The account of Mexico's role comes from Washington; the Mexican government's own position on the stop is not on record in the sources reviewed.

Pedro Monreal, independent Cuban economist

Monreal says the gazette contains no rule for the exchange-house licence ADT 64 received, so nobody knows how a second firm could apply. He says a representative rate would need at least ten houses in five provinces, Havana included.

Prisoners Defenders and OCDH (Madrid-based exile monitors)

Prisoners Defenders counted a record 1,351 political prisoners at the end of September, and OCDH logged at least 344 repressive actions that month. OCDH asked the European Union on 11 September to investigate possible trafficking in Cuba's medical brigade in Italy.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier

Uthmeier announced a no-bond state warrant for Raúl Castro on 19 October over the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shootdown, after reopening the state investigation last year. The four men killed flew for a Miami exile group, and the warrant restricts Castro's travel rather than reaching him in Cuba.

Cuban government (Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla)

Rodríguez said on 21 October that Washington is pressing governments to abstain or leave the hall in the 28 October UN vote and called Florida's Raúl Castro warrant worthless. Havana is presenting its October oil and trade rules as openings and the US measures as an energy blockade.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.