Activist in Havana Arrested for Providing Medicine to Political Prisoners

This week, Cuban activist Danaisi Muñoz López from the Coalition of Women for a Free Cuba was arbitrarily detained by State Security (SE) and police officers in Havana for her efforts in distributing medications to political prisoners. Reports from human rights organizations and media outlets revealed that, at 1 p.m. on Monday, a large contingent of uniformed police and SE operatives descended on the shelter where she lives in Cerro municipality. They arrested Muñoz and confiscated the medicines intended for prisoners as part of her humanitarian work.

The operation involved the local police chief, two female officers, a lieutenant colonel, a major, and agents from the political police, according to Martí Noticias. Muñoz's arbitrary arrest was captured on video by her husband. Initially, several officers confronted her at her residence's entrance, allegedly because she missed a police summons on April 29. She was then taken to a blue car and transported to a National Revolutionary Police (PNR) station.

At the station, other SE officials awaited her and disclosed the true reason for her arrest: delivering medicines to the families of political prisoners, as Muñoz recounted to the Prisoners Defenders organization. “I don’t know how they obtained that information,” she remarked. They attempted to coerce her into signing a search warrant for her home, but Muñoz firmly refused, stating, “I told them: I’m not giving you permission to enter my house because I’m not committing any crime.”

She described being taken to a cell, then to an office where threats ensued, warning that if her husband shared the recorded videos online, they would arrest him too. Subsequently, she was escorted back to her home by patrol, where the officers searched her room and found the medications in bags inside her closet. The police seized the drugs without providing any seizure documentation.

“They violated all my legal rights, they didn’t give me anything; throughout the whole process, I received no paperwork. They infringed on all my rights,” Muñoz stated, who was released after 6 p.m. The video recorded by her husband captures the sector chief's threats of arrest for filming. “Keep recording whatever you want, and we’ll make decisions. You can upload it wherever you like,” the officer intimidatingly remarked.

Martí Noticias spoke with Alain Espinosa, a lawyer from the independent organization Cubalex, who pointed out that Cuban law does not prohibit recording. Article 326 of Cuba's Criminal Procedure Law deems recordings valid if obtained without deceit, coercion, intimidation, or violence. In her interview, Muñoz demanded the return of the medications to continue her aid work for those politically imprisoned by the Cuban regime.

On May 1, State Security personnel were monitoring Muñoz's home, a situation she reported on social media. “We have company for May 1, I’m under siege. Once again, I hold Raúl Castro and Díaz-Canel’s communist regime responsible for anything that might happen to me,” she warned.

Prisoners Defenders, in a recent report, highlighted that the Cuban regime is holding 1,152 political prisoners. Hundreds suffer severe health issues, and their lives are at risk due to inhumane prison conditions, torture, cruel treatment, and the lack of medical care and medications. This week, numerous national and international organizations have raised their voices, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners in Cuba, particularly opposition figures José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro, who were recently re-arrested for alleged parole violations amid escalating state repression.