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Cuban State Media Photo of Detained 16-Year-Old Prompts Rights Outcry

Rights monitors call a new state photo staged propaganda.

Overview

  • Razones de Cuba, a state-run site, published an image of Jonathan David Muir Burgos playing a piano inside Canaleta prison, which rights monitors said was coerced and meant to mask abuse.
  • The 16-year-old was arrested after March protests in Morón and is being held on a sabotage charge at the Canaleta maximum-security facility in Ciego de Ávila.
  • His father and rights groups say he has dyshidrosis and has not received prescribed treatment in custody, describing bedbugs, infections, and sleepless nights.
  • The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights urged protective measures, while the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Havana and two Florida members of Congress expressed concern and pressed for his release.
  • Under Cuban law, 16-year-olds can be tried as adults, leaving him at risk of a long sentence as authorities insist they will not tolerate what they label vandalism.