Woman detained when she was heading to Guantánamo Hospital to visit her brother

Maritza Napoles Matos was detained at the police checkpoint on the road from Santiago de Cuba. Maritza was on her way to the Provincial Hospital of Guantánamo in order to visit her brother who was hospitalized after having been beaten up. The police at the checkpoint, namely Lieutenant Ulises del Toro, State Security official Kevin and other police officers, detained her. When she was resisting arrest, she was hand-cuffed by force which caused her damage and several bruises to her right arm. She was driven to the police unit known as Parque 24 where she was accused of defamation against the security of the state. Napoles Matos told them that she was just expressing how she felt about the totalitarian and repressive government and that every citizen is free to express himself or herself. She was warned by State Security official Kevin that if she spread some piece of information about her brother, she would be prosecuted for defamation. She was fined 1500 pesos and then released.