Background
The economic crisis continued to worsen amid implementation of new economic measures and incomplete reforms in the private sector.
In May, the National Office of Statistics and Information acknowledged the existence of a serious demographic crisis and the impact of outward migration on population decline.
In July, the Code for Children, Adolescents and Youth was approved. However, it contained no differentiated procedural guarantees for children, presented barriers to access to justice for both children in conflict with criminal law and those who are victims of crimes, and favoured existing state centralism, thus enabling the Code to be used as an instrument of control.
Economic, social and cultural rights
Electricity supply was in a constant state of crisis during the year, with frequent massive blackouts that significantly affected access to food, education and health services.
In April, the government announced further cuts and other changes to the already dwindling “basic food basket”.
In May, the Food Monitor Program stated that 96.91% of the population had lost access to food due to inflation, with more than 60% spending between five and 15 hours a week obtaining food.
Authorities acknowledged in July that only 30% of essential medicines were available, and the population had to resort to the non-state-regulated market to acquire these and other medical supplies.
In September, the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights published a report in which it estimated that 89% of the population was living in extreme poverty, with access to food and blackouts the main concerns.
Repression of dissent
In January, after meetings with the Vatican, Cuban authorities announced the release of 553 prisoners, but the process was marked by lack of transparency, dehumanizing treatment and the absence of guarantees of reparation and non-repetition. Human rights organizations documented the release of 211 political prisoners and denounced the imposition of human rights restrictions on those released. In April, prisoners of conscience José Daniel Ferrer García, Félix Navarro and Donaida Pérez Paseiro – all of whom were released in January – had their parole revoked in retaliation for continuing their political activism and defence of human rights. In the preceding months, they had received threats and summonses and had been subjected to interrogations.
The systematic policy of repression against activists and members of the political opposition continued. Human rights defenders saw their rights restricted, and their work continued to be stigmatized and criminalized. Activists, members of the opposition, artists, intellectuals, university students and human rights defenders faced threats, harassment, digital abuse and unlawful interrogation and surveillance. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights documented at least 3,179 repressive actions.
Arbitrary detention, often followed by short-term enforced disappearance, was a repressive pattern used systematically against human rights defenders, activists, artists and journalists. In 2025, the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights registered 529 arbitrary detentions. Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, was arbitrarily detained multiple times over the course of the year. In March, activist Leonardo Romero Negrín was arrested for peacefully protesting by holding a blank sign; he was beaten, accused of resisting arrest and placed under house arrest. The writer Jorge Fernández was arrested and beaten on multiple occasions for demonstrating peacefully; in August he was accused of resistance and placed under house arrest.
In June, a group of university students protested against the increase in internet fees and to demand greater inclusion in decision-making. The protest, ultimately silenced by the government with various repressive measures, included calls for a strike and the suspension of activities in several universities throughout the country.
Freedom of peaceful assembly continued to be repressed through the deployment of police forces and a pattern of targeted arrests in the days following peaceful protests.
In September, 15 people were sentenced to up to nine years in prison for participating in the March 2024 protests in the city of Bayamo. The authorities continued to use the crimes of public disorder, contempt and assault to criminalize peaceful social protest.
Freedom of expression remained severely restricted. In November, the authorities undertook a campaign to delegitimize, criminalize and harass the independent media outlet El Toque and 18 of its contributors. This included systematic attacks on journalists and their families, public defamation, threats of imprisonment and extradition for serious crimes such as financial terrorism, and the disclosure of personal data.
Inhumane detention conditions
Human rights organizations and political prisoners reported incidents of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in prisons.
In 2025, the organization Cubalex documented 39 deaths of prisoners in prisons in the country.
Prisoners of conscience Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Maykel Castillo, Loreto Hernández, Roberto Pérez Fonseca and Sayli Navarro reported recurring practices of deprivation, including denial of phone calls, family visits and prison benefits, as well as access to food, medicine and adequate medical care. In addition, they were subjected to beatings and threats against their lives, as well as further judicial proceedings.
In October, José Daniel Ferrer was released from prison and forced into exile after denouncing months of torture and threats against him and his family. This was part of a systematic pattern of silence and cruelty that used prisoners’ families as a means of control and pressure.
Women’s and girls’ rights
Femicide was still not considered a distinct crime and the state provided no official statistics on femicides or violence against women. In 2025, the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory documented 48 cases of feminicide.
Women activists, human rights defenders and journalists suffered gender-differentiated forms of repression, such as threats against their children, surveillance at schools or stigmatization based on age, appearance or sexual orientation.1
