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The State Security warned that it will not allow new contacts between the Chargé d'Affaires of the United States Embassy in Cuba, Mike Hammer, and representatives of Cuban civil society, as reported by the Center for Convivial Studies (CEC) following the interrogation of its director, Dagoberto Valdés Hernández.
In a statement issued by the CEC, the officials who detained and interrogated the academic in Pinar del Río informed him that “they would not allow the American ambassador to contact people to use them for his purposes in the current situation that Cuba is experiencing.”
The regime described the meeting that Valdés recently held with Hammer as "collaboration with a foreign power that threatens to invade the island," a meeting that—according to the CEC—had a humanitarian nature and focused on the distribution of aid donated by the United States through the Catholic Church.
Valdés was taken to the provincial headquarters of State Security, where he remained for more than two hours under interrogation. Several officers were involved, including Major Ernesto—responsible for "overseeing" the Center for Coexistence Studies—and the head of the Legal Department.
During the meeting, the agents read excerpts from a column published by the intellectual, in which he urged Cubans to prepare for a peaceful change. The officers accused the researcher of "terrorism" and of sharing the enemy's ideas, warning that "they will not allow what happened in Venezuela to happen here."
The CEC reported that the police operation included the detention of the collaborator Yoandy Izquierdo Toledo, who was also interrogated. Both were later released, although Valdés refused to sign the warning notice imposed by the authorities.
The incident adds to the growing wave of harassment against Catholic activists and religious figures, such as priests Alberto Reyes Pías and Castor José Álvarez Devesa, who were summoned this week by State Security for their criticisms of the political system.
The warning to prevent any dialogue with foreign diplomats confirms the regime's strategy: to close off spaces for exchange and criminalize international cooperation with independent actors within the island.
The pulse of Hammer and the Cuban State Security
Mike Hammer, Charge d'Affaires of the United States Embassy in Cuba, has become one of the most visible and, at the same time, most uncomfortable diplomatic figures for the Cuban regime.
His working style—focused on leaving the diplomatic headquarters, traveling through provinces, and engaging with sectors not controlled by the State—has broken with the traditional passivity of the diplomatic corps in Havana.
Hammer has focused his agenda on human rights, freedom of expression, and support for civil society, which the regime interprets as a form of interference.
In recent months, he has been seen meeting with independent journalists, activists, families of political prisoners, and religious leaders, sending the message that Washington recognizes the Cuban people as a legitimate interlocutor, not the apparatus of the Communist Party.
The response from the Cuban state has been immediate: constant surveillance by State Security, discrediting campaigns in official media, and organized harassment by groups of thugs during their outings.
According to documentation from this publication, Hammer was harassed in public places such as Varadero and Matanzas, in episodes that the regime presented as "spontaneous popular reactions."
Parallely, the diplomat maintains an active schedule in the United States, where he has met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, figures from the Cuban exile community, and senior officials from Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) to coordinate pressure actions and monitor the situation on the island.
During their recent trip to Washington, Hammer and Rubio discussed the need to tighten sanctions and maintain focus on the release of political prisoners and the end of repression.
His speech —aligned with the current policy of the Trump administration— asserts that “change in Cuba will come from the Cubans,” and that the United States will not negotiate legitimacy with a regime accused of systematically violating fundamental rights.
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