Doris Santiesteban, wife of Ernesto Ricardo Medina, one of the young people from El4tico who was detained on Friday by the Cuban political police, described the circumstances of the arrest.
At 6 in the morning, when we woke up, they were out there; there were about 5 police officers. Two were in uniform, accompanied by a forensic expert (...) and a witness they picked up on the street, along with another one they brought who was from Security.
The woman recounts that Ernesto Ricardo, upon seeing the situation, refused to open the gate of his house until his aunt could be present as a witness.
“They went to the live stream, went to the room, and took my cellphone, and then they went to the small room and took the laptop, headphones, keyboard, mouse, tripod, camera, and the router.”
"There was a moment when they handcuffed him, when they wanted to take away his phone. And then, after that, they took off the handcuffs and took him away," he concluded.
The activist Yanet Rodríguez Sánchez filed a habeas corpus petition this Wednesday in favor of Ernesto Ricardo Medina and Kamil Zayas Pérez, the young people from El4tico.
“This Wednesday, at 9:12 a.m., Yanet Rodríguez Sánchez filed a habeas corpus petition on behalf of Ernesto Ricardo Medina and Kamil Zayas Pérez before the Provincial Court of Holguín,”
"The document has been registered and stamped with reference RE91. With this resource, the court is demanded to request official information from the Criminal Instruction regarding the situation of both young individuals: their exact location, the formal charges under which they are being detained, the case number assigned to them, and the material conditions of their detention," the information adds.
The young people linked to the project El 4tico were arrested on Friday in Holguín during an operation carried out between six and seven in the morning.
The arrested individuals, Ernesto Ricardo Medina and Kamil Zayas Pérez, were transferred to the Criminal Instruction headquarters of the province, known as "Everyone Sings."
It is a center with "repeated reports" of torture, violent interrogations, and degrading treatment, which he referred to as "the Villa Marista of Holguín."
During the operation, agents confiscated computers, phones, cameras, and equipment that the young people used to "record and document their work."
The detention of the young people has provoked widespread backlash from civil society and among Cubans.
Filed under: