Current Cases

Background

Cuban poet and activist María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez is serving a seven-year prison sentence imposed after being convicted in March 2022 of ‘public disorder,’ ‘contempt,’ and ‘resistance’. She was arrested with her sister Angélica Garrido in July 2021 after participating in peaceful protests.

Garrido is held in poor conditions in detention, including solitary confinement, lack of food and water, and inadequate sanitation. She has also been beaten. Together with her sister Angélica, she went on hunger strike for five days in September 2022 in protest at their continued detention. 

Her sister, released in July 2024, stated that the authorities promised Garrido a transfer to a camp with exit permits that would enable her to see her children, but this concession was eventually denied. María Cristina is the only female inmate from the 11-J movement still imprisoned; the rest have been moved to a camp or paroled. 

Garrido was born in Quivicán, Mayaquebé in 1982. She is the author of Examen de tiempo (Time examination), published in 2022. Her most recent book Voz cautiva: poemas escritos desde la cárcel (Captive Voice: poems written from prison) published in 2023 recounts some of the challenges faced during her incarceration, including ill-treatment, isolation, surveillance, and depression.