The young man identified on social media as Luismi Arias, 23 years old and residing in Ciego de Ávila, was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to the investigative center of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) known as "Todo el Mundo Canta," solely for posting critical opinions about the Cuban government on his social media profiles.
The complaint was made public by the activist Lara Crofs (Yamilka Lafita), who described the case on Facebook under the hashtag #sueltenaluismi. According to the activist, who has also suffered systematic detentions and harassment, the latest of which occurred this weekend, the mentioned repressive center in Avila is "a place repeatedly reported as a site of interrogations and mistreatment."
After being released, Luismi himself confirmed what happened in the comments of that post with a phrase that summarizes the effect sought by the regime: "Hello, I’m Luismi, I’m home now, it was horrible, I can’t post anything more."
Cuban authorities repeat the repressive pattern of threatening imprisonment under spurious criminal charges for publishing any content on social media, a tactic of intimidation that seeks silence without the need for formal incarceration initially. State violence against critical voices has increased proportionally to the country's crisis and the rising citizen complaints.
Among the posts that prompted the repression against the young content creator are phrases like "For a Cuba where no one tells you shhh be quiet, don't say that that you could end up in jail" and another that stated: "Just notice how 'GOOD' communism is that they had to build a wall so that people wouldn't escape." None of these posts contained calls for violence or disorder.
The center "Everyone Sings" is a facility of MININT documented by organizations such as Cubalex and Cuba Center for a Free Cuba in cases dating back at least to January 2022, when Xavier Álvarez García, Yoel David Ochoa Álvarez, and Fernando Eloy González were held incommunicado there, accused of public disorder.
The case of Luismi Arias is part of a repressive wave against young content creators that has intensified in Cuba during 2025 and 2026.
In February 2026, Kamil Zayas Pérez and Ernesto Ricardo Medina, members of the audiovisual initiative El4tico in Holguín, were raided without a court order and taken to a similar unit of the MININT for interrogation; they remain imprisoned.
In March 2026, the influencer Anna Bensi —Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, 21 years old— was placed under house arrest after being charged for posting a video that exposed a State Security sub-officer, while her mother was also summoned for questioning and her sister was held without reason at the airport with her passport confiscated before a flight to Miami.
Ciego de Ávila, the same province as Luismi Arias, is also the place where Jonathan David Muir Burgos, a 16-year-old adolescent, has been imprisoned in the Canaleta jail since March 16, 2026, accused of "sabotage" for participating in the protests in Morón, suffering from serious health deterioration due to a lack of medical attention.
Lara Crofs summarized the contradiction that the regime cannot uphold: "I don’t know how Miguel Díaz-Canel dares to say that there are no political prisoners in Cuba." The leader calmly lied about such a matter in his recent interview with NBCNews.
Since the protests on July 11, 2021, during which hundreds of demonstrators were sentenced to prison, some on charges as untenable as "sedition," the regime has upheld a preventive intimidation policy against any critical expression on social media. Nevertheless, the citizenry, weary and desperate for change in the country, continues to protest.
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