ABOVE: Raúl Soublett López, photo via his Facebook page.
Cuban authorities have prevented an LGBTQ activist from leaving his home ahead of anti-government protests that were scheduled to take place across the country Nov. 15.
Alianza Afro-Cubana, a group that advocates for LGBTQ Cubans of African descent, in a tweet said authorities have not allowed its director, Raúl Soublett López, to leave his home in Havana’s Plaza neighborhood “to go to work as a teacher.”
“Today they have prohibited me from leaving my home,” Soublett told the Washington Blade, referring to Cuba’s state security.
https://twitter.com/AlianzAfroCuba/status/1460262841911554048
The Communist island reopened to tourists Nov. 15 after a 20-month lockdown because of the pandemic. Authorities in recent days have targeted human rights activists, journalists and others who publicly criticize the government.
Maykel González Vivero, editor of Tremenda Nota, the Blade’s media partner in Cuba, is among the hundreds of people who Cuban authorities arrested during anti-government protests that took place across the island on July 11. Yoan de la Cruz, a gay man who used Facebook Live to livestreamed the first July 11 protest that took place in San Antonio de los Baños, a municipality in Artemisa province, faces an 8-year prison sentence.
Tremenda Nota reported State Security agents on Oct. 9 interrogated Soublett and threatened to charge him with “mercenarism” because he made a series of videos that highlight his group’s efforts to fight racism and homophobia in Cuba. The interrogation took place on the same day that President Miguel Díaz-Canel met with a dozen LGBTQ activists who work with the National Center for Sexual Education, a group that Mariela Castro, the daughter of former President Raúl Castro, directs.
The Cuban Justice Ministry in September released a draft of a proposed new family code that would extend marriage rights to same-sex couples in the country.
Tremenda Nota has reported the National Assembly is expected to vote on the new family code next month. A referendum on it would then take place.
