The Cuban activist and actor Edel Carrero reported this Friday that he received a summons from State Security to appear at Villa Marista, just two days after the fifth anniversary of the protests on July 11th.
The notification was delivered at his home by a Major from MININT without explaining the reason for the summons to an "interview," scheduled for Monday, July 13, at 10 in the morning.
Carrero recorded a video of denunciation on his YouTube channel to alert his followers about the situation and to publicly document it before going to the headquarters of the Department of State Security.
"A few minutes ago, I just received a summons from state security for July 13, which is Monday. Today is July 10, 4:22 in the afternoon. A Major came with a request for an interview in Villa Marista," Carrero recounted in the video.
The activist openly questioned the version of the official who handed him the document: "He expects me to believe that he, as a senior member of the MININT, doesn't know the reason why I am being summoned for an 'interview,' which you all know is really an interrogation and psychological torture."
Carrero did not hide his fear about the consequences of attending the summons: "For now, I'm going there for a supposed interview and I end up in prison because that's how this dictatorship is."
The activist highlighted the contradiction between the regime's actions and the crisis the country is facing: "I am making this video so the world knows that while Cuba sinks into misery, blackouts, disasters, drugs, violence, all of it, diseases, assaults, everything, they are focused on citing innocent people like me, who is a law-abiding citizen, who commits no crime."
Carrero participated in the protests on July 11, 2021, in front of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) alongside actors Daniel Triana, Raúl Prado, and Yunior García.
He was violently arrested by four agents of the State Security, taken to the Vivac, and charged with "public disorder," a charge he refused to sign. He was also threatened with sedition and interrogated by Lieutenant Colonel Juan Carlos Aguilera from the Investigation Bureau.
After 11J, Carrero lost his job as a computer technician at the Havana Theater Center, where the director Marvin Yaquis Escobedo informed him that the position was for "trustworthy" individuals. In November 2021, the Prosecutor's Office dismissed the criminal proceedings against him by means of a discontinuance.
The citation from Monday comes in the context of the fifth anniversary of the 11J, when at least 338 people linked to those protests remain imprisoned, according to data from Justicia 11J. The total number of political prisoners in Cuba exceeds 1,281, according to estimates from May 2026.
The regime expressly excluded those convicted of "crimes against authority" —the category used to criminalize the protesters from 11J— from the pardon of 2,010 inmates decreed on April 2, 2026.
Villa Marista, the main headquarters of the State Security Department in Havana, is recognized by international organizations such as Amnesty International as a center for interrogations where psychological torture, isolation, and pressure to sign documents renouncing activism are practiced.
Carrero announced that before crossing the gates of Villa Marista on Monday, he will publish a new video: "On July 13, Monday, before entering the Villa Marista station, I will upload another video so that the whole world knows that I am entering there and that I hold the Castro-Canel dictatorship responsible for everything that could happen to me."
Filed under: