Havana/The Center for Coexistence Studies (CEC) confirmed that Dagoberto Valdés Hernández was detained and interrogated this Friday at the State Security headquarters in Pinar del Río, in an operation led by the elderly. Ernest and Manuelboth political police officers. The arrest, carried out without a court order or the right to call, was motivated – as the officers themselves acknowledged – by a recent visit by Valdés to Mike Hammer, chargé d’affaires of the United States Embassy in Cuba.
According to the disseminated note for Coexistence, the officers showed up in the morning at Valdés’ home accompanied by a Police patrol. They ordered him to vacate the house of the visitors who were there, close it and accompany them immediately, without explaining the reason for the arrest or allowing him to make a phone call. Valdés was taken directly to the State Security headquarters in the provincial capital.
After learning of the arrest, members of the Coexistence team went to the Police Headquarters to try to locate him. The officer on duty assured that they had not received any patrols that morning. Given that response, they moved to the State Security headquarters, where initially no information was offered either. Only after insisting that someone in charge be consulted directly did the elders Ernesto and Manuel appear at the reception to inform Yoandy Izquierdo Toledo that Valdés was detained there.
In that same exchange, the officers told Izquierdo that “he had saved them a trip because they were also going to look for him,” they demanded that he hand over his identification card and informed him that he would also be interrogated. Valdés was taken to internal offices, where an interrogation lasted more than two hours in which the senior head of the Legal Department of State Security, Major Ernesto – the officer who “serves” Convivencia – participated, Major Manuel, head of the Brigade to Confront the Counterrevolution in the province, and a young officer who did not identify himself.
The legal officer explained that the reason for the arrest was Valdés’ visit to Mike Hammer
During the interrogation, the legal officer explained that the reason for the arrest was Valdés’ visit to Mike Hammer. In this context, he accused him of terrorism and of collaborating with a foreign power that – according to him – has threatened Cuba with military intervention. The officers assured that they would not allow the American diplomat to contact people within the country to “use them for their purposes” in the current national situation and stated that “they will die with their boots on defending the Revolution.”
Major Ernesto read fragments of a column published by Valdés in Coexistence last Monday, January 19, in which it was urged to prepare for a peaceful change in Cuba under the premise that “the future is already here.” He asked if this text was linked to the visit to the diplomat. Valdés responded by quoting his own article, in which he recalls the words of Saint John Paul II according to which Cubans “are and must be the protagonists of our own personal and national history,” emphasizing that the change must be assumed by the citizens themselves.
Valdés also explained that the meeting with Hammer was related to the distribution of humanitarian aid donated by the United States through the church and that the objective of the conversation was to learn his opinion about that process. Despite this, the officers insisted on presenting the contact as a hostile action and reiterated warnings about future relations with foreign diplomats.
At the end of the interrogation, the officers informed Valdés that it was a warning document, which he refused to sign. They recommended that he not respond to new invitations from the American diplomat or participate in activities organized by the Embassy, although they indicated that he could travel to Havana for reasons related to the Church, studies, family matters or caring for sick people.
The arrest and interrogations confirm the state of panic that the repressive forces of the regime are going through.
Later, Yoandy Izquierdo was questioned under the same arguments. The officers warned him about alleged manipulation by the chargé d’affaires of the United States and other embassies, demanded that he “maintain the profile” of Convivencia and stated that sharing ideas of the “enemy” also constitutes a crime.
They alluded to Venezuela as an example of what, according to what they said, they would not allow to happen in Cuba, that they “knew everything” from the Cuban intelligence reports, but there “there was betrayal and collaboration with the enemy,” and that here that was not going to happen because “the Revolution is stronger than ever.”
Izquierdo responded that he is responsible for what he writes and for his work on the Project Coexistence and in the Study Center for more than 15 years, but not of official interpretations or “hypothetical futures.” He also questioned the proportionality of the police deployment to address the content of the interrogation, to which Major Ernesto responded that it was an “action-reaction” logic due to the seriousness of the situation in the country.
The detention and interrogations confirm the state of panic that the regime’s repressive forces are going through in the current regional geopolitical scenario, marked by the capture of Nicolás Maduro and the abrupt reordering of alliances and loyalties in the Cuba-Venezuela axis.
