In a context of humanitarian crisis and increased protest, Cuban authorities have continued to perfect a sophisticated machinery of repression of the rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The new Penal Code, which entered into force in December 2022, regulates the crimes of contempt, public disorder, instigation to commit a crime, insult to patriotic symbols and foreign financing in a vague and excessively broad manner, facilitating the discretionary and abusive application of these criminal offences to activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and demonstrators for simply exercising their rights.
