Activist detained and threatened for exercising free speech

The activist Raul Duran Montero was arrested by National Revolutionary Police (PNR) officer Feyo Nicle Hernández and informants Antonio Labanino and Francisco Sáname because he allegedly disturbed public order when he publicly said that communism was useless and that the communists were thieves. Not even half an hour later, when the activist had already been arrested and taken to the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) unit where he remained for more than 24 hours. There, he was threatened by a Department of State Security (DSE) officer who was interrogating him, Mielsi Duran Campo. The officer told him that what he had done could cause harm, and that he could be imprisoned for public disorder and for defaming the party members who he called thieves. The officer went on to say that he should remember that he had already been in prison for being a loose tongue, that those he kept company with were not going to bring him anything good, and that he should think about what he was holding and who he was meeting. The activist was released in the morning of the next day, but not before having been charged with public disorder and enemy propaganda.