Amnesty International has called on the Cuban government to end systematic gender-based violence against women human rights defenders, journalists, and activists, launching its new report, “They Want Us Silent, But We Keep Resisting: Authoritarian Practices and State Violence Against Women in Cuba.” The report documents a pattern of state repression targeting women engaged in activism, including arbitrary detention, unlawful surveillance, criminalisation, enforced disappearance, and other forms of institutional violence, all occurring in an environment of impunity and weak judicial protections.
The report highlights that women defenders in Cuba are punished not only for speaking out but also for their roles as mothers, journalists, and community leaders. Amnesty International emphasizes that the state uses gender-based violence as a tool to undermine women’s dignity, families, and collective strength, employing tactics specifically designed to target women.
Covering incidents from 2014 to 2025, the report details gendered forms of repression, such as forced nudity, invasive body searches, stigmatisation based on gender, age, or sexual orientation, and threats against relatives. Women interviewed described deliberate cruelty, including intimidation through children, public shaming, and sexualized harassment during detention. Testimonies from activists like Yenisey Taboada, Luz Escobar, and María Matienzo illustrate the physical, digital, and psychological harassment used to silence women in Cuba.
Amnesty International stresses that this violence is structural, disproportionately affecting Black women, single mothers, and women of diverse sexual orientations. The abuses persist in a context of limited human rights protections, a politicized judiciary, absence of reporting mechanisms, and lack of comprehensive gender-based violence legislation, which collectively perpetuate impunity.
The organisation urges the international community to act, warning that global silence has allowed the Cuban state to continue its repression unchecked. Amnesty International calls on states, inter-American bodies, and the European Union to demand concrete protection measures and publicly condemn the institutional gender-based violence targeting women activists.
The report demands an immediate end to harassment, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearance of women defenders in Cuba, alongside the adoption of comprehensive gender-based violence legislation with specific protections for activists. To support this effort, Amnesty International has launched a global petition urging President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Cuban authorities to end repression and implement protective measures, amplifying the voices of women defenders and increasing international pressure for change.
