Independent lawyer detained in order to prevent him from organizing a training

On Thursday, 18 July 2019, the independent lawyer José Ernesto Morales Estrada went to the police station in Pinar del Río. The day before, Captain Otoniel visited José Ernesto at home at 9 pm in order to summon him to the police station for the next day. When he arrived, he was received by Captain Otoniel who took him to his office to interrogate him. The official was mostly interested in the capacity-building training which José Ernesto had organized for the same day at 10 am. The officials told him, that if he continued with his counter-revolutionary activities, he would end up in prison. Few hours later, he was received by offical Yuri who continued with the interrogation, using the same threats. José Ernesto was kept at the police station until 1 pm and for that reason he was not able to carry on the training which was scheduled. On the top of that, his house was being watched all the time during his detention in order to prevent any other activist from coming for the training and houses of four more activists were kept under surveillance as well so they could not have been about about the cancellation of the training. José Ernesto was released five hours later.