The human rights organization Cubalex reported on Thursday the detention of at least seven individuals, including four minors, for their alleged involvement in 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 taken to the Criminal Operations and Instruction Center in Versalles, Santiago de Cuba, where they remain incommunicado and their families have not received any official information about their legal status.
Cubalex identified four of the detainees: 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 to support 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 rising social tension in Contramaestre. As the building burned, neighbors flooded the streets shouting slogans like "Freedom!" and "Contramaestre doesn't want more communism," in a protest marked by discontent over prolonged power outages, food shortages, and the country's economic situation.
After the incident, the authorities conducted a large-scale police operation along with State Security in the La Cuba neighborhood and around Maffo, where arrests and surveillance activities were focused.
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, in 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 the scene of protests and demonstrations in various neighborhoods, driven by power outages of up to 22 hours daily, fuel shortages, lack of drinking water, and food scarcity.
Cubalex warned that the increase in repression coincides with the approaching anniversary of the July 11, 2021 protests and reported that, in recent weeks, several youths 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 reminded that in Cuba, criminal responsibility begins at the age of 16, allowing adolescents to be tried in regular courts. Additionally, it denounced that current legislation permits initial interrogations without the presence of lawyers or family members and favors the use of pre-trial 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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