The Mixed Martial Arts champion Javier Ernesto Martín Gutiérrez, known as "Spiderman," was transferred to the Combinado del Este prison in Havana after spending nearly a month confined at Villa Marista, the headquarters of State Security.
His mother, Lourdes Gutiérrez, confirmed that the 34-year-old athlete called her on Saturday from the new prison facility to inform her about the transfer, unable to specify the reasons for the change or the whereabouts of his belongings.
"This morning my son called me asking for a list of everything he needed; I couldn't talk to him anymore or ask him when they transferred him there," the mother stated to Martí Noticias.
No authority informed the family beforehand about the prison change: "They have not returned the belongings he had in Villa Marista. No one informed me about the change of location. Nothing," Gutiérrez added.
The transfer occurs while the defense awaits a response to an appeal filed following the prosecution's refusal to substitute preventive detention with house arrest.
Martín Gutiérrez was detained on April 24 while leaving training in Marianao, Havana, after nine days of peaceful protest from his balcony, broadcasted on social media.
During that protest, the athlete denounced the energy crisis, shortages, the increase in street violence, and the use of a drug known as "el químico" among Cuban youth, stating phrases like "The communist system is dead."
The authorities have formally charged him with "public disorder" based on his Facebook videos, a charge that the family outright rejects.
"Just expressing what he felt in his home is not public disorder. He wasn't causing a scene; he was alone. And here, no neighbors complained about anything; on the contrary, the neighbors supported him," his mother stated.
In a handwritten letter sent to the human rights organization Cubalex, Martín Gutiérrez reported being assaulted by nearly ten State Security officers in plain clothes who did not identify themselves.
"Once immobilized, they squeezed my testicles and struck me; they were brutal, hitting me on the back of the head and neck... They put me in a van where they also turned me upside down, and after a while, they laid me down and stomped on my head," he recounted in the letter.
The athlete also described that he spent 24 hours without proper medical care and lost about 25 pounds due to poor nutrition at Villa Marista.
The regime also attempted to discredit him by claiming "behaviors associated with undiagnosed psychiatric disorders," a repressive tactic with historical precedents in Cuba and other dictatorships.
However, a forensic medical evaluation conducted on May 1 ruled out any mental disorder and confirmed a high intellectual quotient, publicly dismantling the regime's maneuver.
The case is set against a backdrop of increasing repression: Prisoners Defenders reported an all-time high of 1,260 political prisoners in Cuba in April 2026, with reports of torture, death threats, and 14 minors imprisoned.
From Villa Marista, Martín Gutiérrez left his final position written: "I don't feel regret, rather disappointed by everything."
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