The consolidation of power is paramount for authoritarian leaders, and it often comes at the expense of the rights and dignity of citizens. Dissidents who speak out can expect to be exiled, jailed, or killed under these regimes. According to the U.S. government, there are more than one million political prisoners in the world today.

Welcome to The Struggle for Freedom, a monthly blog about democracy and human rights activists abroad and why supporting them is the right thing for Americans to do, strategically as well as morally.

Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai has been in jail since he was charged with “foreign collusion” after a raid by the Chinese government on pro-democracy Apple Daily publication in August 2020.

Cuban rapper Maykel Castillo Perez's uncompromising work unites Cubans and exposes the myths of the 1959 revolution and its more than six decades of repression.

Vladimir Kara-Murza was recently sentenced to 25 years in a Russian penal colony for his criticism of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Bush Institute continues to speak out against Kara-Murza's unjust detention and advocate for his freedom.    

An update on Ihar Losik, a jailed Belarusian blogger and contributor to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Popular Belarusian blogger Ihar Losik was taken as a political prisoner and sentenced to 15 years in jail in an ongoing effort by the Lukashenka regime to silence opponents and neutralize the digital media.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a pro-democracy Russian politician, was charged with high treason on Oct. 6. Russian authorities briefed Kara-Murza on the indictment in prison, where he has been detained since April on less severe charges.

When protests spread throughout Iran last September after the death of Mahsa Amini, a young, Kurdish Iranian woman arrested and beaten for improperly wearing her headscarf, Narges Mohammadi reported on the regime’s crackdown from a unique vantage point: Iran’s notorious Evin prison.