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The human rights organization Cubalex reported on Thursday the detention of at least seven individuals, including four minors, for their alleged connection to the fire at the Orlando "Olo" Pantoja Tamayo Memorial House, known as the Maffo Museum, which occurred on the night of June 21 in the municipality of Contramaestre, Santiago de Cuba.
According to the organization, some of those arrested were transferred to the Operations and Criminal Instruction Center of Versailles in Santiago de Cuba, where they remain incommunicado and their families have not received any official information regarding their legal situation.
Cubalex identified four of the detained: José Ángel Borrero Zorrilla, 17 years old; José Jorge Menéndez Vázquez, also 17; Luis Alberto Leyva, around 20 years old; and Yordi Daniel Gómez Aguilar, 21.
The organization warned that authorities have made arrests for alleged involvement in the fire "without any evidence supporting those accusations" and noted that the number of seven detainees could be higher.
"We continue to verify these facts, so we do not rule out that the number of people detained may be higher," he stated.
The fire occurred amid escalating social tension in Contramaestre. As the building burned, residents took to the streets shouting slogans like "Freedom!" and "Contramaestre doesn't want more communism," in a protest marked by dissatisfaction over prolonged blackouts, food shortages, and the country’s economic situation.
After the incident, the authorities deployed a large police and State Security operation in the La Cuba neighborhood and around Maffo, where arrests and surveillance actions were concentrated.
The burned building held significant symbolic value for the regime. The house, built in 1936 and converted into a museum in 1991, is dedicated to Orlando "Olo" Pantoja Tamayo, a guerrilla fighter born in Maffo who fought under the command of Ernesto Che Guevara and died on October 8, 1967, in the Quebrada del Yuro, Bolivia, during the operation in which the Argentine-Cuban leader was also captured.
The arrests occur in a context of increasing conflict in the municipality. On March 22, the recruitment office of the Municipal Military Committee was set on fire, an event interpreted as a protest against Mandatory Military Service. Months later, on June 14, residents reported an increase in police harassment following the appearance of anti-government posters in the area.
The tension has also spread to the rest of the province. Since early June, Santiago de Cuba has been a scene of protests and demonstrations in various neighborhoods, fueled by power outages lasting up to 22 hours per day, fuel shortages, lack of drinking water, and food scarcity.
Cubalex warned that the increase in repression coincides with the upcoming anniversary of the protests on July 11, 2021, and stated that in recent weeks, several young people from Contramaestre have been subjected to arbitrary summonses, threats, and acts of intimidation.
The organization also raised concerns about the situation of detained minors. It recalled that in Cuba, criminal responsibility begins at the age of 16, allowing adolescents to be tried in ordinary courts. Additionally, it denounced that current legislation permits initial interrogations without the presence of lawyers or family members and favors the use of preventive detention, practices that have been criticized by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
According to data from Cubalex, as of June 2026, there have been 109 protests recorded on the island, while the organization documented 1,279 human rights violations in the first six months of the year.
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