Guantánamo activist detained and beaten when heading to visit his colleague on a hunger strike

In the morning, 17 August, 2020, Bartolo Cantillo Romero was on his way to visit Miguel Ángel López Herrera. López Herrera was on a hunger strike after having been a victim of a kidnapping and robbery carried out by the State Security. Bartolo tried to visit Lopez Herrera in order to express his solidarity and ask about his health. When he was walking down the Moncada and 11 Sur Streets in Gunatánamo, several State Security officias and collaborators detained him, beat him up and put by force to a patrol car. He was then driven to the police station Parque 24. There, they issued him an official warning, opened a criminal record for dangerousness and fined him 30 pesos for, according to the officials, disturbing the order. After having been beaten up and threatened during the detention which did not have any legal base, Bartolo asked for a lawyer. However, the officials started to laugh and told him that "he is crazy since they can do whatever they want to and nothing would happen as they can show him very soon".