The former Cuban political prisoner Alexander Díaz Rodríguez, one of those convicted following the protests of July 11, 2021, reported having been kidnapped, beaten, and subjected to mock executions by State Security agents while on his way to an event at the United States Embassy in Havana.
The testimony was shared by the organization Prisoners Defenders in a video posted on Facebook.
According to Alexander himself, he remained isolated for nearly three days and was moved between various police units, the woods, the beach, and a facility in the Havana municipality of Mariano.
"I was kidnapped. I was stripped. I was beaten. They pointed a gun at me, simulating Russian roulette," the former prisoner stated in the video.
Alongside Alexander, José Elías González Agüero was also arrested, the acting national coordinator of the PUNCLI (National Unity Party of Free Cuba), whose whereabouts were unknown during the detention.
Upon his release, Alexander found himself in precarious conditions: he had to wait for a friend to pick him up in Havana so he could bathe and eat something for the first time in almost three days.
«With me, they inflicted a torture that I hadn’t seen even on television 50 years ago, torture from Iran, that torture that those people have to pay for. I don't understand why it's impunity, brother,» he expressed with visible distress.
This new arrest comes just months after Alexander was released on April 12, 2026, after fully serving a five-year sentence for the crimes of "sedition" and "contempt," without receiving any form of clemency.
During his incarceration at the Kilo 5 and a Half prison in Pinar del Río, his physical condition deteriorated alarmingly: he entered weighing 81 kilograms and left weighing just 37 kilograms.
He developed thyroid cancer—diagnosed in October 2022—hepatitis B, anemia, and severe malnutrition, without receiving adequate oncological treatment.
The dramatic physical deterioration of Alexander was the cover story of the Spanish newspaper ABC in April 2026 and generated international repercussions.
On June 1, 2026, Mike Hammer, mission chief of the United States Embassy in Cuba, visited Alexander in Artemisa, in a gesture that demonstrated diplomatic attention to his case.
The new arrest fits into the systematic pattern of harassment by the Cuban regime against former political prisoners from the 11J who maintain contact with foreign diplomats or participate in civil society activities.
Alexander is one of more than 1,000 Cubans detained following the historic protests on July 11, 2021, the largest popular demonstrations in Cuba in decades.
He was arrested in Cárdenas, Matanzas, and the Cuban authorities repeatedly rejected his requests for extrapenal license, deeming him, in their own words, "counter-revolutionary."
"Brother, I'm feeling a river of emotions, a pain, brother, that this happened to me," Alexander concluded in his testimony, with a trembling voice.
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