“Having seen and considered your appeal, its processing is unacceptable, since it does not comply with the requirements of the Law and its case has been ordered,” says a letter from the National Assembly of People’s Power (Parliament), which the press had access to. The letter was addressed Wilbur Aguilerafather the young man was sentenced to 12 years in prison and one of the initiators of the initiative.

According to official data, some 500 Cubans sentenced to 25 years in prison for participating in historic demonstrations July 11 and 12, 2021, although human rights organizations and the US Embassy on the island number up to a thousand.

Yaxis SiresDirector of Strategies of the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, commented RFI.

The reaction of the Cuban parliament does not even correspond to their own socialist legality. They reject the request, allegedly because it does not meet formal requirements. But the whole world knows, and this is established by the socialist law itself, that the requests of citizens should not be subject to so many formalities. What is protected and protected is the right of a citizen to write to an official and make a request.

In a petition that Aguilera submitted to parliament on January 19, about thirty family members demanded that the body initiate “the appropriate procedures (…) to draft and discuss so that the amnesty law is adopted.” This demand currently has 2,314 signatures in support.

Moreover, says Sires.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights recently sent a document to the Cuban regime that, just eight days after the release of political prisoners, outlined various ways to release them. One of them is amnesty. Family members requested and defended it. But other methods may also be used, such as pardon or permission to be released from punishment. What’s happening is that the regime really doesn’t have the political will to do this.