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An official from State Security appeared this Tuesday at the home of Dagoberto Valdés Hernández, director of the Centro de Estudios Convivencia (CEC) in Pinar del Río, to prohibit him from traveling to Havana or leaving the municipality this Wednesday, May 20, the anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Cuba.
According to the note published by CEC itself, the officer, identified as Major John, arrived at 3:30 PM with a justification that reveals the regime's nervousness regarding the date: "The objective was to inform you that tomorrow, May 20, you could not go to Havana, nor leave the municipality, because the government of Donald Trump had said that tomorrow would be the last day of the Revolution."
The restriction was not limited to Valdés: Major John notified that the measure also included Yoandy Izquierdo Toledo and the rest of the CEC team.
The Center reported the incident with a brief but strong statement: "The harassment of the members of the Center for Convivencia Studies continues."
The pattern is not new. In January 2026, State Security detained and interrogated Valdés and Izquierdo after contacts with the United States Chargé d'Affaires, Mike Hammer.
In April 2026, both executives were questioned again at the Pinar-1 Processing Unit about academic activities and book presentations.
In July 2024, State Security warned Valdés about the possibility of committing six offenses outlined in the Cuban Penal Code, and a month earlier, an officer identified as "Major Ernesto" had already prohibited him from leaving on July 11 and 12, in anticipation of the anniversary of 11J.
The actions taken this Tuesday are part of a widespread preventive repression that the regime has deployed in light of the symbolic weight of May 20, 2026, a date that comes charged with unprecedented expectations for change.
The Trump administration has imposed over 240 new sanctions against the regime since January, signed Executive Order 14380 declaring it a "national emergency," and expanded secondary sanctions to foreign banks on May 1 with Executive Order 14404.
The economic impact has been devastating: energy imports have decreased by between 80% and 90%, power outages affect more than 55% of the territory with interruptions of up to 25 hours a day, and the projected economic contraction for 2026 reaches 7.2%, according to the Intelligence Unit of The Economist.
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