José Gabriel Barrenechea Chávez
Image Credit: Selfie of José Gabriel Barrenechea Chávez
Writer imprisoned
Poet and academic José Gabriel Barrenechea Chávez is serving a six-year prison sentence, the maximum penalty, after conviction of ‘public disorder’ in relation to his critical literature and activism. He was detained on 8 November 2024 following his participation in a peaceful protest. Barrenechea has faced systematic harassment since 2019 for his critical journalism, including a travel ban, employment restrictions, and the censorship of his books in Cuba.
Cuban poet José Gabriel Barrenechea Chávez was held in pre-trial detention until his trial on 24 September 2025. Barrenechea was detained on 8 November 2024 following his participation in a peaceful protest in Encrucijada, Villa Clara. Accused of leading the demonstration, video evidence shows that he neither engaged in violence nor incited disorder, but was merely exercising his right to protest peacefully. PEN International highlighted his situation on World Press Freedom Day 2025.
Barrenechea’s health has significantly deteriorated since his arrest. He suffers from severe malnutrition, infections, sleep disorders, anxiety, and depression. The cruelty of his imprisonment was compounded when authorities denied him the right to say goodbye to his mother before her death from cancer on 4 May 2025.
Barrenechea has faced systematic harassment since 2019 for his critical journalism, including a travel ban, employment restrictions, and the censorship of his books in Cuba—part of a broader campaign of repression against independent journalists and government critics. He was repeatedly summoned by state security and briefly detained in attempts to intimidate him and silence his work.
José Gabriel Barrenechea Chávez, born in 1971, is a writer, academic, journalist and researcher. His published works include Tubular Bells and Other Stories and Cuba, an Island Between Apathy and Revolution, and José Antonio Saco runs out of arguments. Before his arrest, Barrenechea also contributed to independent Cuban and international media outlets such as 14ymedio, Diario de Cuba and Latinoamérica 21, and co-edited the magazine Cuadernos de Pensamiento Plural.
Update
On 15 January 2026, the Provincial People’s Court of Villa Clara convicted Barrenechea Chávez of the offence of ’public disorder’ and sentenced him to a six-year prison term.