The director of the Convivencia Studies Center (CEC), Dagoberto Valdés Hernández, denounced on Tuesday the harassment by State Security (SE) of the Cuban regime against his organization.
According to a statement signed by the Cuban intellectual and published by CEC on Facebook, on the night of April 30, at the entrance to the highway in Pinar del Río, the political police and several regime agents intercepted the car in which Valdés was traveling with Yoandy Izquiero.
The scholar noted that all the occupants of the vehicle had their documents taken away and were taken to a police station under the pretext of a review of their identity papers.
According to the report, they questioned the driver who took them to Havana about the reasons for their trip and the places they visited.
Additionally, the publication points out that the political police informed Valdés that they had detained him because "they wanted to clarify some information and could not wait for the appointment," referring to a meeting the intellectual was scheduled to have on May 1st.
"The lieutenant colonel asked if I knew Ibrahim Bosch, president of the Republican Party of Cuba, based in Miami. According to the officer, Bosch is a notorious terrorist who has called for violent acts within Cuba during the May Day events and has mentioned that they were counting on Dagoberto in Pinar del Río," the statement detailed.
Valdés denied knowing that person, stating that "due to his religious principles and throughout the history of his life, he is absolutely against not only terrorism but even the smallest act of violence."
The officials found a series of "coincidences" very suspicious: Bosch's call, the trip to Havana just before May Day, and the Monday column that addressed Labor Day, emphasized the CEC's complaint.
The regime's police made it clear that "being apprehended in the middle of the highway at night and taken to a police station does not align with the purpose of the interrogation for which I was already summoned."
Finally, according to the statement, that night Izquiero was sitting alone on a bench in the living room, separated from the driver and unable to communicate with him, and when they finished with Valdés, they returned their identification documents and cell phones and allowed them to continue their journey.
According to the news portal ADN Cuba, previously, the director of the CEC reported that he received a phone call from Major Ernesto of the regime's SE, stating that he was summoned "for tomorrow, May 1, 2024, at 8 a.m. at the Immigration Offices in Pinar del Río."
Due to his political opposition to the authoritarian Cuban regime and his intellectual and social contributions, Dagoberto Valdés, a resident of the western city of Pinar del Río, constantly suffers harassment from State Security, including arbitrary detentions and official marginalization, the news site reported.
As part of this harassment by the regime, the Catholic activist has previously been interrogated by the political police.
In 2023, for example, Valdés was summoned by the State Security of Pinar del Río for an interrogation.
"I was told that it was an official warning because the Danish journalist Øjvind Kyrø, who interviewed me over 15 years ago in Vitral and visited my home two months ago, was organizing sessions with 16 people to learn more about Cuba," explained the activist after leaving the police station.
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