The Cuban Christian activist Anthony Martínez Román was released after being arbitrarily detained for more than 20 hours at the police unit known as "El Técnico" in Guanajay, Artemisa province. He had gone there the day before in response to an official summons, according to reported the group Fuera de la Caja, after noon this Saturday.
It was his wife who publicly alerted about the arrest through a post on Anthony's Facebook profile at 1:25 p.m. on Friday. She recounted in the post that the authorities informed her by phone that her husband was arrested for alleged "disobedience," without providing any further explanation.
"When I ask why, they tell me it's for 'disobedience.' After insisting again to understand what this 'disobedience' is, the only response I received was: I'm talking too much, and they hung up the call," the woman wrote in her post.
The wife also questioned how the authorities handled the situation: "I wonder if information like that is given over the phone? An officer should have come to my house to explain it to me properly."
One of the aspects that concerned the family the most was the activist's health status. "MY HUSBAND IS UNDER MEDICAL TREATMENT, with antibiotics and an inhaler. Will he receive the medical attention he needs during these hours of detention?" his wife asked.
The Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP) demanded the immediate release of Martínez and called for both official information for the family and medical attention for the detainee. Several people accompanying him outside the police unit in Guanajay were also taken into custody on Friday.
Martínez was not a stranger to the State Security. On October 1, he led a public prayer with about 70 people in front of the courthouse where the influencer Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente and her mother Caridad Silvente were being tried, having been sentenced to two years of restricted freedom for posting images of an agent from the Ministry of the Interior.
After that incident and several critical publications, a series of summonses followed for him: he had appeared before the agents at least three times before November, including an interrogation of more than two hours on October 5, during which he was threatened with imprisonment if he did not cease his activism.
The detention of Martínez is part of an intensified week of repression against independent activists and journalists in Cuba. On Friday, the political police carried out simultaneous operations outside the homes of Yoani Sánchez, Camila Acosta, Lara Crofs, and others to prevent them from attending an event at the U.S. Embassy in Havana.
Sánchez was held for nearly nine hours, accused of "an attack against the constitutional order"; Acosta was handcuffed and detained for more than eight hours, and her phone was destroyed.
Karel Daniel Hernández Bosques, from the collective Fuera de la Caja Cuba, was released after 12 hours of interrogation at a police unit in the 10 de Octubre municipality in Havana. "We are experiencing a wave of repression against all Cubans who create content or engage in political activism," declared Mauro Reigosa Pérez, spokesperson for the collective.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights documented at least 387 repressive actions by the dictatorship in October 2026, a figure higher than the 344 recorded in September, which reflects a sustained upward trend throughout the year.
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