Javier Ernesto Martín Gutiérrez, the mixed martial arts fighter known as "Spiderman," completed six months of incarceration this Saturday in the maximum-security prison Combinado del Este in Havana, with no formal charges filed by the prosecution or a date set for his trial, according to his partner’s statement to Martí Noticias.
Lisandra Cuza, companion of the 34-year-old athlete, summarized the situation as follows: "He has been detained for six months now, and we are still in the same place; we have no answers regarding his case. No prosecution request has been made, and no trial date has been given."
Martín Gutiérrez was arrested on April 24 by plainclothes officers while returning from training in the Havana municipality of Marianao.
The arrest took place after nine days of live broadcasts from his balcony, during which the champion of the Cuban Mixed Martial Arts League questioned the prolonged blackouts, the shortage of food and medicine, and the economic crisis, stating that "the communist system is dead."
After his arrest, he was first transferred to Villa Marista —the headquarters of State Security— and later to the Combinado del Este, where he remains incarcerated.
The legal situation has worsened over time: in addition to the initial charge of public disorder, mid-September saw the addition of charges of contempt and propaganda against the constitutional order.
What is particularly striking is that the contempt charge had been withdrawn at the beginning of the process due to a lack of evidence to support it. "It was proven that he had not committed any contempt, and now they are bringing it back," Cuza reported.
The defense learned about the new charges not through direct notification, but rather through a court document that rejected a request for judicial review. The lawyer has also been unable to access the case file: when he went to Villa Marista, he was told that "it still hadn't been sent, that it was at the court."
The legal advisory organization Cubalex analyzed the case and concluded that the court upheld the provisional imprisonment without hearing from the accused, without identifying a specific procedural risk, and with a justification that occupies only a single paragraph, which violates the Cuban Criminal Procedure Law.
The conditions of confinement add another reason for concern. Cuza warned that the inmates at the Combinado del Este have gone days without potable water, facing food shortages and more than a week without being able to communicate by phone with their families due to service failures.
Since the beginning of his incarceration, Martín Gutiérrez has lost approximately 25 pounds due to inadequate nutrition and, in a letter sent from prison in August, reaffirmed his stance: "They will not break me."
The family has submitted four requests for a change of precautionary measure so that the athlete can await the process outside of jail; all have been denied.
The U.S. Department of State, through the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, described him as "unjustly detained" in August and recalled that he was arrested for peacefully expressing himself from his home.
The case is set against a backdrop of increasing repression: the organization Prisoners Defenders recorded a historic high of 1,372 political prisoners in Cuba as of October 1, including 40 minors and 158 women.
In July, Martín Gutiérrez warned that he would go on a hunger strike if no date was set for his trial after six months of detention. That deadline has now passed, and the regime's silence is the only response.
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