UNPACU Activists Detained, Beaten and Blackmailed

On February 9, around 3:30 am, Graciela Domínguez Girón was heading along with other activists in a car to Santiago de Cuba to attend a mass at the cathedral. In a place known as the sand trap, the car stopped. The officers of the national police and the secret police came quickly to detain them. They mounted them on a bus and drove them to the PNR of Julio Antonio Mella. In the PNR, rapid response brigades and the anti-riot brigades of MININT were waiting. The activists were beaten. After several hours, around 6 am, they were transferred to a remote area of the town where they were beaten again and blackmailed. After the beating the officers left them there.