The Libertarian Party of North Carolina calls for the immediate release of libertarian activists Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velasquez Visea, arrested February 2 by the Cuban government. 

“As libertarians, we condemn our own government's interference in Cuba's domestic affairs,” said James Hines, an at-large member of the party’s executive committee. 

Cubans had a right to revolt against the dictator Fulgencio Batista, who overthrew a democratic government in 1952 coup d’etat, Hines said. 

“Even more,” he added, “we mourn for the Cuban people because Fidel Castro, the man they trusted to lead the resistance against Batista, and his brother Raul, have proven far more brutal tyrants than the dictator they replaced.” 

“Today, the members of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina lament that Cubans live under a government which will arrest, or threatens to arrest them, by characterizing any expression of dissent in economic or political matters as an attack upon itself,” Hines said. 

“We pray for the safety, happiness, and freedom of Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velasquez Visea as we pray for all of the people of Cuba and as we wish all of these things for ourselves.” 

According to The Mises Institute, Cuban state security targeted both men for their "dissident activities" of meeting to discuss limited government, free markets, and libertarian theory, all of which are a threat to Raul Castro's authoritarian regime. 

Libertarian parties in Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Spain passed resolutions calling for the immediate release of the jailed activists.