Legal uncertainty and violation of criminal proceedings

On Wednesday, March 28, State Security agents showed up at Dámaso Antonio Fernández Canales' home, alleging that subversive material was possessed. They took the photos of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero, documents for the Varela Project, documents on human rights organizations and several books. The victim and his son, Damaso Alberto Fernández Doimeadiós, were taken to the headquarters of the National Revolutionary Police. The head of the operation was Major Juan Carlos Espinosa, but the rest of the troops did not reveal their name, nor a record of the assets occupied. When the son asked where his father was taken, the Major replied: "I can not, nor will I give you that information, I am obligated to tell you how, where he is and what we are going to do with him after 72 hours." He threatened the victim's son with confiscating his cell phone because of his alleged contacts with the anti-Cuban mafia. Threatening also to crush them if they participated in the campaign for the freedom of Dr. Eduardo Cardét. He was then taken to the Provincial Instruction Prison in Pedernales, Holguín. They put him in a cell for 72 hours, without the family knowing where he was. The victim then began a hunger strike, after his medication was suspended by the doctor and he began to suffer, despite being interrogated 7 times. Finally, he was placed under house arrest for the crimes of spreading enemy propaganda and dissemination of false news, without clarifying his legal status.