The Cuban Wilber Aguilar Bravo traveled more than 300 kilometers from Havana to Sancti Spíritus on Thursday to visit his son, the political prisoner Walnier Luis Aguilar Rivera, and was turned away at the gates of the Nieves Morejón prison without even being able to deliver food to him.
The father, now turned into an activist and advocate for the rights of the protesters from 11J in Cuba, denounced what happened through a video posted on Facebook.
"Today, October 8th, they turned me back from Santi Espíritu. And on this trip, they didn't even let me bring in food. My son is without food, without deodorant, without soap, without anything," he recounted, visibly upset in front of the camera.
According to his testimony, that day marked 84 days since the family had seen Walnier, and the prison authorities scheduled the next authorized visit for November 20, which would mean over three additional months of family separation.
Wilber described the operation as premeditated: the agents who received him were not the same ones from a previous visit that had been blocked at the end of August, but rather new individuals who had arrived from Havana.
"Those who saw me on the last trip weren't here today. New people. The folks from Havana were there. This was premeditated. This hostility was planned. They spoke to me in a threatening tone," he reported.
In addition to denying him access, State Security agents monitored him and identified him and his family in the city park, a practice colloquially known as "signing." "The parking lot was full of agents, signing me there," he described, pointing out that he recognized several of them and pointed them out with his finger.
It wasn't the first time the family experienced this type of blockage. At the end of August, Wilber and his relatives waited from seven in the morning until eleven, only to be informed that the visit "was not coordinated" and needed to be arranged with State Security in Havana.
Harassment is not limited to relocations. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights documented at least six repressive acts against Wilber during 2026, including interrogation summons, constant police surveillance in front of his home, and restrictions on leaving his residence.
In July, a patrol of the National Revolutionary Police stationed itself outside his house during the anniversary of 11J.
Walnier was arrested on July 20, 2021, at the age of 21, for participating in the protests of July 11 in the La Güinera neighborhood. He was initially sentenced to 23 years in prison for sedition; following an appeal, the sentence was reduced to 12 years.
He has a borderline intellectual disability and an organic brain injury, conditions that his father claims were not taken into account by the court.
Since then, the regime has gradually moved him to facilities farther away from his family: first to Combinado del Este, then to the Agüica prison in Matanzas in November 2025, and finally to Nieves Morejón in Guayos, Sancti Spíritus, in January 2026. According to Wilber, Walnier is the only one of the 17 accused in his case who remains incarcerated.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures to Walnier in July 2022 and extended them to Wilber and his immediate family through Resolution 9/2025, after documenting surveillance, detentions, and threats. In the video from Thursday, Wilber warned that the deadline for the Cuban government to respond to that measure was the following day, with no response from the authorities.
"I am denouncing here and I fear for the life of my son and my own. We are constantly being pursued. If I go to the corner, security is there," he stated. He concluded with a warning directed at those who orchestrate the harassment: "If you want to kill me, go ahead, I am not worried or interested. I will never stop being loyal to my son, my conscience, and my family."
The case of Walnier is part of a broader context: as of October 7, 2026, the organization Prisoners Defenders counted 338 individuals still imprisoned directly due to the protests on July 11, among a total of 1,306 political prisoners recorded in Cuba.
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