Up to five years in prison for nine participants in a protest in Bayamo

In Bayamo, nine people prosecuted for participating in a popular protest face a prosecutor's request of up to five years in prison. The request corresponds to the city's Municipal Prosecutor's Office and is linked to a demonstration against blackouts, which occurred in May 2025. After the closure of the investigation, the case advanced with the proposal that the citizens be brought to trial.

The protest took place on May 23, 2025 in Bayamo, a municipality in the province of Granma. The date places the episode more than a year before the sentencing requests. The nine citizens named in the process were included for their participation in that demonstration, which brought together claims related to basic services and living conditions.

During the mobilization, the participants demanded food, water and electricity. Among the slogans chanted was "we want food, electricity and water", an expression that condensed the demands raised in the streets. The protest was also directed against the blackouts, one of the reasons mentioned in relation to the process opened against the nine citizens.

The provisional conclusions of the Prosecutor's Office marked the closure of the investigative stage and gave way to the request that the case reach an oral trial. The request for penalties was presented about a year and a half after the demonstration. In that procedure, the Municipal Prosecutor's Office of Bayamo asked for sentences that can reach five years of deprivation of liberty for the defendants.

The petition establishes the maximum sentence requested for the nine participants, but it does not in itself amount to a sentence. The announced step is that the opening of an oral trial be requested, after the investigation is concluded. Thus, the case moves from the investigative phase to the judicial instance raised by the Prosecutor's Office, in relation to the protest held in Bayamo on May 23, 2025.