Cuba: Ex Prisoner Of Conscience Detained

Josiel Guía Piloto is a member of the Republican Party of Cuba and former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. He previously served a five-year sentence for “public disorder” and “contempt” for allegedly having criticized former President Fidel Castro on 1 December 2016.  

On 11 June 2019, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures to respect and protect his rights to health, life and physical integrity. In February 2020, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention also called his previous detention in 2016 “arbitrary” and called for his release.  

According to information currently available to Amnesty International, prior to his most recent detention on 14 February 2023, Josiel Guía Piloto reported that state security officials had detained him for approximately two hours on 10 February 2023 and threatened to charge him with “disobedience” if he did not report to them twice a month.  

At the time of his most recent detention, he was hunger striking in protest over these requirements, information which became public through various media reports on 14 February 2023.