The disappearance of Professor Alina Bárbara López has been reported after she went out to participate in a peaceful protest in Matanzas

The teacher and activist Alina Bárbara López was reported missing on February 18 in Matanzas after leaving her home to participate in her regular monthly peaceful protest.

According to a post shared on her Facebook profile, the academic left home this morning to participate in her peaceful demonstration, which she holds on the 18th of each month, and as of now, she has not returned home.

"Your phone is turned off. At the PNR Playa station, they don't want to tell us if he is there," states the message shared by his family.

The complaint adds that concealing information from family members constitutes a violation and demands that the authorities provide accurate information about their whereabouts.

Alina Bárbara López peacefully expresses herself every 18th, and on most of those dates she has been arrested by the authorities.

Organizations and activists have repeatedly denounced that these arrests aim to prevent the exercise of their right to free expression.

So far, there is no official confirmation on whether the teacher is in police custody.

Family members and close associates continue to demand immediate information about their situation and whereabouts.

For her part, her daughter, Cecilia Borroto López, reported on her Facebook profile that both Alina Bárbara López Hernández and activist Leonardo Romero Negrín are missing.

He explained that they both left together for the Parque de la Libertad in Matanzas, intending to be there by 10 in the morning, and that the family has been unable to reach either of them.

He pointed out that his mother's phone is turned off or out of coverage, that the police refuse to provide information over the phone, and that his mother has been unable to call her lawyer, despite it being her right.

"I demand to know immediately where Alina and Leo are," he claimed.

López, regarded as one of the most critical intellectual voices against the regime on the island, is also facing legal proceedings alongside activist Jenny Pantoja Torres.

Both were charged on June 18, 2024, with alleged crimes that López Hernández has labeled as false and fabricated by the police under the guidance of the Counterintelligence agencies.

According to public statements made, the process extended for more than seven months amid delays that, in her opinion, were due to the political cost of trying two women with academic and social recognition both nationally and internationally.

The oral hearing was scheduled for January 30 at 9:00 a.m. at the Municipal Court of Matanzas and was officially announced as public, although López Hernández herself warned that this status is rarely respected in practice.

Subsequently, the court , according to information shared by Jenny Pantoja on social media and in a legal document she circulated.