The case of an imprisoned Cuban writer exposed at the world’s largest book fair
- Partido Republicano de Cuba
- Oct 19, 2025
- 2 min read
The struggle for freedom of expression and human rights was felt at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025, where Cuban writer María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez was the focus of a panel discussion organized by PEN Germany.
The life and work of Cuban writer María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez, imprisoned for her participation in the protests of July 11, 2021, in Quivicán, Mayabeque, were presented last Friday to the European public at a discussion organized by PEN Germany during the Frankfurt Book Fair.
At the event, sponsored by the Writers in Prison program, Najem Wali, vice president of PEN, and Cuban author Ariel Maceo Téllez, exiled in the European country, took part.
Writers in Prison seeks to give visibility “to the many writers imprisoned around the world under totalitarian regimes, and one of those poets is the Cuban María Cristina Garrido, and that was the focus of the event,” Maceo Téllez explained to Martí Noticias.
“I had the opportunity to speak about María Cristina Garrido’s case, give visibility to her work, and above all, denounce the arbitrariness of the Cuban regime against her as an imprisoned individual.”
Likewise, the writer exiled in Germany denounced in his speech the violations of her rights that the poet suffers in prison: “above all, to demand her freedom before the German public.”
The panel discussion took place within the framework of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025, held from October 15 to 19 at Messe Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany. It is the largest international book fair in the world and attracts thousands of exhibitors and visitors.
“The audience was very attentive to what we shared about María Cristina Garrido’s case, and the public fully agreed that María Cristina Garrido must be free,” Maceo Téllez emphasized.
PEN Germany stated in a communiqué that the Cuban writer was imprisoned for publicly expressing her opinions; this alone “is sufficient reason—for us and for anyone who understands freedom of expression as a fundamental universal right—not to relent in our efforts for her release.”
The conference debated issues such as freedom of expression, political instrumentalization, and the limits of literary solidarity—a controversy present in many countries, including Germany.
Garrido is the executive director of the Republican Party of Cuba, an organization based in Miami with delegations in dozens of locations across the country, which has secured the commitment of the Spanish political group VOX to defend human rights and pursue democracy on the island.
“Precisely at this point the debate could begin about whether it is appropriate or not to continue supporting someone considered ‘right-wing,’” Wali noted.
“When a writer is arrested, I do not look to the right or to the left, but straight ahead, to see which prison they are in,” he concluded.
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