LIMA, Peru – The project represorescubanos.com, of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, added to its list of repressors Major Noel Morales López, head of the Canaleta provincial prison, Ciego de Avila, and responsible for the brutality unleashed against the inmates on February 18 and 19, 2026.
As the platform recalled, the Canaleta prison population, including common and political prisoners, rioted with shouts of “Homeland and life”, “Freedom” and “Long live Trump, down with Díaz-Canel” after one of the inmates, almost a child, said he was hungry and received a beating in response. The young man later appeared hanged or tried to, and when word spread, Detachment 2, of 147 men, began the revolt against the mistreatment, the beatings and the lack of food and medicine.
The record highlights that at dawn on the 19th, the prison police, firefighters, the special Black Wasp troops of the FAR (from Camagüey and Sancti Spíritus), and the Black Berets of the MININT Special Brigade intervened. They repressed with rubber bullets, pepper spray, punches and kicks.
“Several inmates were dragged, transported in ambulances and in political police vehicles. Others were taken to isolation areas to continue the beatings. The complainant Yonimiler Del Río Polo reported that Major Morales López could be seen in the middle of the riot in Canaleta stamping on the face of an inmate known as Iván El Gordo. Different reports indicate several inmates died during the scuffle,” the repressor’s profile states.
CubanRepressors.com has stated that the inclusion of officers is part of its strategy of documenting and publicly pointing out people who carry out acts of repression in Cuba. Last week, it added three officials to its list of repressors for their participation in the process against the independent creators of the audiovisual project El4tico Ernesto Ricardo Medina and Kamil Zayas Pérez.
According to a press release released by the Foundation, Roiner Herrera Piña, captain assigned to the Department of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of the Interior, was among those involved in Medina’s arrest at dawn on February 6, 2026. The statement indicates that the officer had court orders and participated in the search of the creator’s home, where digital equipment was confiscated.
The organization also included in the list an official who introduced himself as “Lieutenant Colonel Parra”, identified in the note as “head of State Security in Holguín.” The Foundation assures that this officer intervened in the operation against Medina and that, simultaneously, Kamil Zayas Pérez was detained at his home under a similar procedure.
The third name added to the registry is Yamisel Hernández Rodríguez, group chief prosecutor of the Department of Criminal Procedures of Holguín. According to the note, the official communicated in a video a provision dated February 12, 2026 that imposes the precautionary measure of provisional detention for both members of El4tico.
The Foundation denounces that the case was “orchestrated” by State Security and that the creators are persecuted for exercising their freedom of expression with criticism of the regime.
