The Christian activist Anthony Martínez Román recounted on Monday the conditions of his detention at the police unit known as "El Técnico," in Guanajay, and the pressures his companions faced while waiting outside, which he describes as a pattern of retaliation for thinking differently.
Martínez was detained on Friday, November 6 when he responded to a police summons and remained in custody for more than 20 hours before being released on Saturday. He was assigned prisoner number 352 and was moved to a cell with common prisoners, according to his own account.
The agents informed him that the reason for his detention was "disobedience," arguing that he had been warned three times that he could not publish videos or meet with staff from the United States Embassy in Havana. "Warnings that I did not sign because they make no sense," the activist wrote in a lengthy post on Facebook.
The image that accompanied his post showed a dilapidated cell with the sign «Villa Marista» —the headquarters of the Cuban State Security in Havana, sadly known as a detention center for dissidents and activists— alongside a Bible on the floor and a piece of paper with his prisoner number.
Martínez was receiving medical treatment with oxygen, albuterol, and antibiotics at the time he was incarcerated. He could only leave his cell every six hours to take his medication, as the oxygen ran out and could not be administered inside.
Upon his release, a State Security agent informed him that he would be under house arrest with movement restrictions, that he had to report his outings, and that there was an ongoing legal process against him. "See, we're not so bad; you're going to be free," the agent told him, according to Martínez's own account.
The activist also reported that those who accompanied him —and who were merely waiting seated outside the unit— were subjected to reprisals. Pastor Rolando Fidel Pérez Lora, known as "Pregonero de Cristo," was forcibly deported to Las Tunas from Havana. An accompanying individual identified as "Alfre" was left at night in a remote and dangerous location. The driver who took Martínez was also interrogated and threatened.
"A Pregonero was deported to Las Tunas, while Alfre was taken far away from his home to a very dangerous place at night; it was a great injustice," wrote the activist.
"May God help us in our Cuba. Thieves roam free, robberies and assaults don’t stop, and no one is caught, but we are targeted for thinking differently. There’s no fuel for the ambulance, but there’s plenty for the patrol. Cubans, cry out for our Cuba; let’s continue to intercede because we cannot keep living this way. Our Cuba needs change, where those who left can return and families can come together again. It has been 67 very sad years. We ask you, God, to change the story," concluded Anthony Martínez.
The detention is part of a week of intensified repression. On November 5, journalist Yoani Sánchez was held for nearly nine hours and accused of "attempting against the constitutional order." Days earlier, Camila Acosta was handcuffed and held for more than eight hours, with her phone being destroyed. Karel Daniel Hernández Bosques, from the group Fuera de la Caja Cuba, was interrogated for 12 hours on the same day as Martínez.
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