Among the complaints of violations of Human rights in Cuba as of 2026 are repression and punishment of dissent and public criticism, arbitrary detention, harassment, and intimidation of government critics, independent activists, journalists and political opponents by authorities, lack of due process, including the right to fair and public hearings before an impartial and independent judiciary; overcrowding and unsanitary conditions, lack of access to adequate food and water for those imprisoned; economic privation such as prolonged electricity blackouts, acute shortages of essential goods and services -- food, medicine, and others; government control of all media, censorship and restriction of outside information, critics and independent journalists, prohibitively high prices for internet access; restrictions on recognition for transgender people; restrictions on religion such as laws against holding worship services in private homes even in areas without churches. At least some Human Rights groups see Cuba's policies in the context of the long standing embargo of the country by Cuba's much larger neighbor (the United States). Several "independent UN experts"The experts are: Alena Douhan, Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights; George Katrougalos, Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Attiya Waris, Independent Expert on foreign debt, other international financial obligations and human rights; Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences. have argued that the Trump administration's designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism has had adverse human rights and humanitarian impacts on the country's people and runs contrary to international law.
Some of the organizations scrutinizing and criticizing the state of human rights in Cuba include Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Cubalex, Cuban Observatory of Human Rights. In addition, the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba led by former statesmen Václav Havel of the Czech Republic, José María Aznar of Spain and Patricio Aylwin of Chile was created to support the Cuban dissident movement.
History
During Spanish colonization, the oppression of the indigenous populations was chronicled at length by clergyman Bartolomé de las Casas. The subsequent transportation of African slaves to the island, which lasted over 300 years, led to British military intervention and a determination "to put a stop to these abuses"."Report from the British commissionary judge, Havana, to the Foreign secretary (Lord Stanley)." September 30, 1866. Thomas, Hugh. Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom. p.1050. Since Cuba achieved independence in 1902, successive Cuban governments have been criticised and condemned by various groups, both within Cuba and internationally, for human rights violations on the island. During the latter part of the Spanish colonial era in Cuba, human rights on the island became a particular international concern. After a visit to the region in 1898, U.S. Senator Redfield Proctor estimated that up to 200,000 Cubans had died from starvation and disease within "Spanish forts", essentially concentration camps. The concern was a contributory factor in garnering support for the Spanish–American War in the U.S.
After independence, and following a sustained period of instability, the 1924–33 capitalist government of Gerardo Machado proved to be authoritarian. Machado extended his rule until Fulgencio Batista led an uprising called the Revolt of the Sergeants, as part of a coup which deposed Machado in 1933. Batista then became the strongman behind a succession of puppet presidents until he was himself elected president in 1940. According to Hugh Thomas, the post-Machado period was marked by violent reprisals, mass lynchings and a deterioration towards corruption and gansterismo throughout the island.Hugh Thomas. Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom. p.388
From 1940, Cuba had a multiparty electoral system until Fulgencio Batista (President from 1940 to 1944) staged a coup with military backing on March 10, 1952.
To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace—which was subsequently displayed through frequent student riots and demonstrations—Batista established tighter censorship of the media, while also utilizing his Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities secret police to carry out wide-scale violence, torture and public executions. These murders mounted in 1957, as socialist ideas became more influential. Many people were killed, with estimates ranging from hundreds to about 20,000 people killed.CIA (1963). Political Murders in Cuba -- Batista Era Compared with Castro RegimeWickham-Crowley, Timothy P. (1990). Exploring Revolution: Essays on Latin American Insurgency and Revolutionary Theory. Armonk and London: M.E. Sharpe. P. 63 "Estimates of hundreds or perhaps about a thousand deaths due to Batista's terror are also supported by comments made by Fidel Castro and other Batista critics during the war itself."Guerra, Lillian (2012). Visions of Power in Cuba: Revolution, Redemption, and Resistance, 1959–1971. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 42 "The likely total was probably closer to three to four thousand."Conflict, Order, and Peace in the Americas, by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, 1978, p. 121. "The US-supported Batista regime killed 20,000 Cubans"Invisible Latin America, by Samuel Shapiro, Ayer Publishing, 1963, , pg 77. "All told, Batista's second dictatorship cost the Cuban people some 20,000 dead"The World Guide 1997/98: A View from the South, by University of Texas, 1997, , pg 209. "Batista engineered yet another coup, establishing a dictatorial regime, which was responsible for the death of 20,000 Cubans."The Third World in Perspective, by H.A. Reitsma & J.M.G. Kleinpenning, , pg 344. "Under Batista at least 20,000 people were put to death."
On October 6, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy, in the midst of his campaign for the U.S. presidency, decried Batista's relationship with the U.S. government and criticized the Eisenhower administration for supporting him:Fulgencio Batista murdered 20,000 Cubans in seven years ... and he turned Democratic Cuba into a complete police state—destroying every individual liberty. Yet our aid to his regime, and the ineptness of our policies, enabled Batista to invoke the name of the United States in support of his reign of terror. Administration spokesmen publicly praised Batista—hailed him as a staunch ally and a good friend—at a time when Batista was murdering thousands, destroying the last vestiges of freedom, and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Cuban people, and we failed to press for free elections.Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at Democratic Dinner, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 6, 1960 from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.In 1958, Time magazine wrote: "Cuba's fanatic, poorly armed rebels last week tried to smash President Fulgencio Batista with the ultimate weapon of civilian revolutions: the general strike. ... Fulgencio Batista got ready for the strike by offering immunity to anyone who killed a striker and by threatening to jail any employer who closed shop." During the strike, militants and youths stole guns, and threw bombs (one of which may have set up a gas-mains fire), after which some people were killed in clashes."
According to Time magazine, "The strike was short-lived: "With the upper hand, Batista drove boldly around the city while his cops proceeded to make their supremacy complete. When a patrol car radioed that it had clashed with rebels and had 'a dead man and a prisoner', the dispatcher ordered: 'Shoot him.' At midafternoon, cops burst into a boardinghouse, grabbed three young men who were leaders of Cuba's lay Catholic Action movement, which sympathizes with Castro. Two hours later their stripped, tortured and bullet-torn bodies were turned over to relatives. Total dead: 43."
In 1959, Fidel Castro and his forces succeeded in displacing Batista from power. At that time there were fundamental changes in the judicial and political process. During this transitional period there were some concerns voiced about due process.The Day After — Cuba: His Brother's Keeper Foreign Policy archive.The End of the Rule of Law March 1959 Fidel Castro, by Robert E. Quirk 1993
The "Cuban National Reconciliation movement", a U.S.-based organisation that says it acts as a forum for discussing Cuban society, has detailed what it believes are complex variables when analysing human rights immediately after the revolution. In the 1960s, violent confrontations known as the Escambray Rebellion between the Cuban government and armed opposition were ongoing, but had declined by the early 1970s. The group states that by the time international human rights movements flourished in the 1970s, the most severe period of repression was over, making non-partisan retrospective assessments of the period difficult. The reconciliation movement also cites the difficulties in assessing accounts of abuses that are commonly split upon partisan lines. According to the group, Cuban exiles who were often the first to denounce the Cuban government, largely shared an anti-Communist ideology and overlooked violations committed by other regimes, whilst many left leaning observers did not give the claims of Cuban victims due consideration.Cuban National Reconciliation movement Task force report 2003
After coming to power in 1959, Fidel Castro's government built a highly effective machinery of repression, according to Human Rights Watch.
As early as September 1959, Vadim Kotchergin (or Kochergin), a KGB agent, was seen in Cuba.British Foreign Office. Chancery American Department, Foreign Office, London September 2, 1959 (2181/59) to British Embassy Havana classified as restricted Released 2000 by among British Foreign Office papers FOREIGN OFFICES FILES FOR CUBA Part 1: Revolution in Cuba "in our letter 1011/59 May 6 we mentioned that a Russian workers' delegation had been invited to participate in the May Day celebrations here, but had been delayed. The interpreter with the party, which arrived later and stayed in Cuba a few days, was called Vadim Kotchergin although he was at the time using what he subsequently claimed was his mother's name of Liston (?). He remained in the background, and did not attract any attention.." (English title: The training camp "Point Zero" where the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) trained national and international terrorists) "... Los coroneles soviéticos de la KGB Vadim Kochergin y Victor Simonov (ascendido a general en 1970) fueron entrenadores en "Punto Cero" desde finales de los años 60 del siglo pasado. Uno de los" graduados" por Simonov en este campo de entrenamiento es Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, más conocido como "Carlos El Chacal". Otro "alumno" de esta instalación del terror es el mexicano Rafael Sebastián Guillén, alias "subcomandante Marcos", quien se "graduó" en "Punto Cero" a principio de los años 80." Jorge Luis Vasquez, a Cuban who was imprisoned in East Germany, states that the East German secret police Stasi trained the personnel of the Cuban Interior Ministry (MININT).
Political executions