Some would-be migrants alleged harassment and discrimination, such as fines, expulsion from school, and job loss.The law permits authorities to bar an individual from a certain area within the country, or to restrict an individual to a certain area, for a maximum of 10 years. Ministry of Education officials used the “Escuela al Campo” plan to make students ages 11 to 17 work in the agricultural sector with no pay. On July 29, new regulations came into effect designed to bring these independent networks under state regulation by transferring SNet services and content to Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A (ETECSA), the government-monopoly internet service provider. Some reported they received warnings from the agents and officials that the education of their children, or their own employment, could be “threatened” if the house church leaders continued their activities.Independent activists, as well as political parties other than the CCP, faced greater obstacles, and state security forces often suppressed attempts to assemble, even for gatherings in private dwellings and in small numbers.

Prison cells were overcrowded. Cuba’s GDP has increased each year since its historic low of $5.69 billion in 1970 to a record-setting … Potable water was often unavailable. The law does not permit children ages 15 and 16 to work more than seven hours per day, 40 hours per week, or on holidays. Government authorities have harassed, assaulted, and imprisoned human rights defenders who attempt to document abuses.Following public protest, the Cuban government decided to remove language from the proposed new constitution that would have redefined marriage to include same-sex couples.In November 2017, the US government reinstated restrictions on Americans’ right to travel to Cuba and to do business with any entity tied to the Cuban military, security, or intelligence services. Citizens could be denied access if they could not demonstrate a need to visit a particular library. After being taken into custody, they were typically fined and released. The targets of this harassment at times suffered physical assault or property damage. Multiple domestic human rights organizations, including the Spain-based NGO Cuban Prisoners’ Defenders, published lists of persons they considered political prisoners; individuals appearing on these lists remained imprisoned under the “precriminal dangerousness” provision of the law.Under criminal procedures, police have 24 hours after an arrest to present a criminal complaint to an investigative police official. Cardet, who had been threatened with jail because of his support for the “One Cuban, One Vote” campaign, was sentenced to three years in prison on March 2017. In June 2018 the ILO requested the government ensure ASIC be given recognition to freely operate and carry out its trade union activities, in accordance with freedom of association. Specialized units of the ministry’s state security branch are responsible for monitoring, infiltrating, and suppressing independent political activity.

Police, however, continued to use the case as justification for detaining him.In connection with a planned march on September 8, several UNPACU activists were arbitrarily detained on September 7. Those who criticize the government or engage in hunger strikes and other forms of protest often endure extended solitary confinement, beatings, and restrictions on family visits, and are denied medical care.While the government allowed select members of the foreign press to conduct controlled visits to a handful of prisons in 2013, it continues to deny international human rights groups and independent Cuban organizations access to its prisons.On August 9, Alejandro Pupo Echemendía died in police custody at Placetas, Villa Clara, while under investigation for a crime related to horse racing. The houses are in a dilapidated state and the furniture inside is at least 30-40 years old. Political prisoners also reported that fellow inmates, acting on orders from or with the permission of prison authorities, threatened, beat, intimidated, and harassed them.Prisoners reported solitary confinement was a common punishment for failure to comply with prison regulations, and some prisoners were isolated for months at a time. for more information). The journalists are held incommunicado, as are artists and academics who demand greater freedoms. According to Lopez, she was charged with public disorder, disobedience, resistance, and contempt and an official threatened with retaliating against her husband, who is currently imprisoned.The government controls virtually all media outlets in Cuba and restricts access to outside information. The law provides few grounds for a worker to refuse to work overtime below these caps.

The number of arbitrary short-term detentions, which increased dramatically between 2010 and 2016—from a monthly average of 172 incidents to 827—started to drop in 2017, according to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an independent human rights group that the government considers illegal.The number of reports of arbitrary detentions continued to drop in 2018, with 2,024 from January through August, a decrease of 45 percent compared to the 3,706 reports during the same period in 2017.Security officers rarely present arrest orders to justify detaining critics. Quinones asked why he was being arrested.