Ariel Limias Leyva, the 53-year-old Cuban painter who was arrested on Friday after climbing the steps of the Capitol in Havana with an anti-government banner, was transferred early this morning to Villa Marista, the main detention and interrogation center of State Security in the capital, as confirmed by his wife to the independent media 14ymedio.
Limias had spent Friday night at the Dragones police unit, where he remained incommunicado and was subjected to interrogations. His wife, Yulia Morales, went to the location with medicine, hygiene items, and breakfast, but she was not allowed to enter. «The G2 came and took him away; we weren't allowed to see him, we saw him from afar,» the woman recounted.
Morales also warned about her husband's fragile health: «He had a heart attack just on January 18, and he is undergoing treatment for his heart». Limias Leyva rejected the food she brought him, a gesture that his wife is already familiar with: during his first detention in 2021, he didn't eat anything during the 12 days he was imprisoned.
On Friday, Limias walked through several streets of Centro Habana shirtless and holding a sign that read on one side, «No more absurd political discrimination» and «down with the dictatorship», and on the other side, «homeland and life and freedom».
Despite the usual surveillance around the headquarters of the National Assembly, he managed to climb the entire staircase of the building before four agents cornered him, brought him down, and placed him in a patrol car. Before getting into the vehicle, he shouted, "Down with the dictatorship!" and someone among those present responded, "Down!"
Morales emphasized that her husband acted with full awareness of the consequences. «We discussed it, we knew the consequences, but his sense of justice is much greater than the risk», she said. «He has always been very clear about everything, he knows his rights very well and defends them».
It was not the first time Limias had protested in this manner in front of the Capitol. On July 17, 2021, just days after the massive protests of July 11, he took to the streets with a sign that read "Liberty", a similar banner to the one he hung earlier this Friday on the balcony of his home in Old Havana.
Both Ariel and Yulia —married for 28 years and without children— are painters who exhibit and sell their paintings at the San José Fair.
According to information published by 14ymedio, in a video shared on social media, Limias made his stance clear: «They have destroyed the lives of every family in this country for almost 70 years. And they think they will perpetuate themselves, but they will not succeed».
The pattern of repression against those who protest alone with signs is well documented in Cuba. The most well-known case is that of Luis Robles, "the young man with the sign," who was arrested in December 2020 on the San Rafael boulevard with a sign that called for freedom for the rapper Denis Solís.
Robles spent more than four years in prison and, after being released due to an agreement between the regime and the Vatican, was forced into exile in Madrid in October 2025. The fighter Javier "Spiderman" Martín, who protested from his balcony in Marianao in April 2026, was also transferred to Villa Marista and then to Combinado del Este, where he reported beatings, hunger, and lack of communication.
The case of Limias occurs at a time of increasing social unrest: the Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 1,415 protests and critical expressions in July 2026, a historical record, and 663 in September, while Cubalex counted nearly 2,000 repressive actions in the first half of the year.
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