Félix Navarro Is Dying in Prison: The World Must Wake Up

On Tuesday morning, Cuban activist Rosa María Payá sounded the alarm with a heartbreaking and urgent message: Félix Navarro, the 70-year-old opposition leader in Cuba, was abruptly returned to Agüica Prison in critical health condition. In a desperate phone call to his wife, he said he could barely speak, was in extreme pain—especially in his lungs—and felt like he was dying. His wife, Sonia, rushed to the prison to see him, but the regime denied her access, hiding behind vague claims that he was being “treated” by doctors without giving any details about his condition.

Navarro, founder of the Party for Democracy Pedro Luis Boitel, is one of many political prisoners locked up by Miguel Díaz-Canel’s communist regime under inhumane conditions. But his case stands as a symbol of something the international community often chooses to ignore: in Cuba, people are tortured, silenced, and left to die simply for thinking differently.

While progressive voices in the United States and Europe continue to romanticize the Cuban system as some kind of socialist utopia of health and education, Cuba’s prisons are home to brutal and systematic human rights violations. Not surprisingly, the global leftist media have remained silent about Navarro’s plight. He doesn’t fit the narrative of the so-called “revolution.” His only crime: demanding free elections and refusing to kneel before a totalitarian regime built on fear and control.

Rosa María Payá, daughter of slain Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, denounced the regime’s refusal to provide any medical transparency regarding Navarro. His wife was turned away at the prison gate—an act not just of cruelty but of open violation of basic human rights.

The Cuban dictatorship continues to operate with total impunity, shielded by the silence of international organizations, the apathy of the global media, and the indirect support of those in the U.S. who still call for “engagement” with a murderous regime that has shown no intention of reform.

Unlike weak Democratic administrations, President Donald J. Trump has taken a firm, uncompromising stance against the Cuban dictatorship, correctly identifying that there can be no negotiation with tyrants who jail, torture, and kill their own people. His leadership has exposed what others are too afraid to say: Cuban socialism is not a model—it’s a decades-long humanitarian tragedy.

Meanwhile, the American left and its media allies are too busy attacking the foundations of our own democracy, pushing radical gender policies, open borders, and ideological censorship, instead of raising their voices against real oppression like that happening every day in Cuba.

Navarro is not alone. He represents thousands of Cuban men and women who are imprisoned, persecuted, or starving because they dared to think freely. He also represents the complete failure of a socialist model that has silenced and impoverished millions.

Where are the international activists who flood social media with global “justice” hashtags? Where are the NGOs that scream about climate change but remain mute about torture and death in Cuban prisons? Where are the celebrities who visit Havana to take selfies with tyrants but won’t speak a word for political prisoners?

It is time for the world to wake up. It is time for the United States, as a beacon of liberty, to reclaim the moral leadership it once held. And it is time for the Cuban people—inside and outside the island—to know that they are not alone in their fight for freedom.

Félix Navarro must be released immediately. No conditions. No negotiations. He must be transferred to a hospital as a free man to receive the urgent care he needs.

Miguel Díaz-Canel is directly responsible for Navarro’s life. And if the world remains silent, it will also be complicit in his death.

In the coming hours, Cuban exile organizations, conservative leaders, and freedom-minded human rights advocates will issue formal calls for international pressure. The United States must lead that charge. Under President Trump’s leadership, this cause will not be ignored.

To Rosa María Payá, Sonia, and the entire family of Félix Navarro: you are not alone. Truth is on your side. And while the media stay silent and progressives look away, the American people who believe in freedom are watching, listening—and ready to act.