Activist arrested and questioned for false accusations of writing signs and handing out human rights declarations

Porfilio Rodríguez Matos, a Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) activist, was detained by Department of State Security (DSE) officials Alfredo Oliveros and Neuri Duran Pajan, and by the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) Major Brian Torres Hurjelles and First Lieutenant Anael Hernández. The activist was detained because he allegedly had written an anti-government sign on one of the walls of the municipal government building. The activist was detained as he was sitting in the central park of the city of Baracoa, and was taken to the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) unit where he was detained for more than 24 hours under intense interrogation by the Major and head of the confrontation, Alfredo Oliveros. This officer wanted the activist to recognize that he was the one who wrote the sign and also that he was the one who had put human rights declarations under the doors of some houses. The activist says that at the time of the interrogation he told the officer that if he had been the one who put the sign up and that he was the one who threw it under the doors of some houses he would not have had any kind of problem saying that he was because he was a declared opponent of the regime, but in this case he did not do it. The officer who was questioning him told him that they would be watching him and that if they found out it was him they would look for him wherever he went and they would find him and then they would turn everything off because no one was making fun of the DSE. The activist was released at 4:00 p.m., but not before receiving an official warning for an alleged crime of public disorder.