{"id":28846,"date":"2017-10-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/cuban-activist-has-charges-against-him-dropped-3728\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:44:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:44:59","slug":"cuban-activist-has-charges-against-him-dropped-3728","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/press\/cuban-activist-has-charges-against-him-dropped-3728\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuban activist has charges against him dropped"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/971aff3790070adbbef6bcb66ee74374.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Cuban religious freedom activist was informed on 2 October that criminal charges against him have been dropped by Cuban state security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color:#212121\">F\u1ebflix Yuniel Llerena L<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white\">\u00f3<\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\">pez, a religious freedom activist, was informed on 2 October that criminal charges against him have been dropped by Cuban state security, and that he is allowed to travel abroad again.<\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\"><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color:#212121\">Llerena L\u00f3pez is the Central Region Coordinator for the Patmos Institute, an independent civil society organisation which promotes freedom of religion or belief and inter-religious dialogue and cooperation. The 20 year old activist had been<\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/2017\/05\/02\/press\/3544\/article.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color:blue\">interrogated<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\"> by state security agents on 27 April upon arrival at the Abel Santamaria International Airport in Santa Clara as he returned from<\/span>an advocacy visit to<span style=\"color:#1F497D\"> <span style=\"color:#212121\">the United States.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\"><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color:#212121\">On 28 April, Llerena L\u00f3pez was<\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/2017\/05\/02\/press\/3544\/article.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color:blue\">detained<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\"> by state security agents, threatened and forced to sign an \u2018Acta de Advertencia\u2019 or pre-arrest warrant for public disorder.<\/span><span style=\"color:#1F497D\"><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color:#212121\">He was later<\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/2017\/05\/10\/press\/3553\/article.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color:blue\">expelled<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\">from the Enrique Jos\u00e9 Varona Pedagogical University in Havana, ostensibly due to excessive absences from classes within the last month. However, Llerena L\u00f3pez has stated that he had not registered the number of absences which would justify such action<\/span><span style=\"color:#1F497D\">,<\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\">and that the real reason behind his expulsion is his human rights activism.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color:#212121\"><b><i>\u201cAfter<\/i><\/b><\/span><b><i>five<span style=\"color: #212121\"> months of opposition, arrests, being expelled from University, intimidation, threats and a false accusation<span style=\"color: #212121\">, today I can say that solidarity<\/span><span style=\"color:#1F497D\"><\/span>[and] the<span style=\"color:#212121\"> dignity of not giving up on principles<\/span><span style=\"color:#1F497D\">[\u2026]<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/b><span style=\"color:#212121\"><b><i> triumphed,\u201d<\/i><\/b> he told CSW.<\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\"><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color:#212121\">CSW\u2019s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said: <b><i>\u201cWhile we welcome the criminal case against F\u1ebflix Yuniel Llerena L\u00f3pez being dropped, and the<\/i><\/b><\/span><b><i><span style=\"color:#212121\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/2017\/06\/19\/press\/3594\/article.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color:blue\">lifting of the ban<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"color:#212121\"> on his international travel, we believe that these measures<\/span>should not<span style=\"color:#1F497D\"> <span style=\"color:#212121\">have been brought against him. We continue to call on the Cuban government to cease its harassment of human rights defenders and to turn its attention to addressing ongoing violations of freedom of religion or belief.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/b><span style=\"color:#212121\"><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Cuban religious freedom activist was informed on 2 October that criminal charges against him have been dropped by Cuban state security.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":42985,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[140,137],"class_list":["post-28846","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-cuba","regions-latin-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39432,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28846\/revisions\/39432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28846"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=28846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}