The academic was detained by two patrol cars on the Pinar del Río highway when he returned from Havana
14ymedio, Havana, May 1, 2024 — Cuban academic Dagoberto Valdés was detained this Tuesday night by State Security agents during a trip from Havana to Pinar del Río, where he lives. Valdés, the director of the Center for Coexistence Studies and one of the center’s members, Yoandy Izquierdo, were taken along with the driver of the vehicle in which they were traveling to a police station in Pinar del Río, according to what Valdés and Izquierdo denounced in a joint note published on social networks.
Both were returning from a church meeting in the capital and around 9:30 at night, on the highway to Pinar del Río, near the Calero bridge detour, they were “intercepted” by two Police vehicles. “In addition to the two police patrols, there were State Security officers, Major Ernesto and Lieutenant Colonel Manuel,” the publication clarifies.
According to the activists, the agents took away the passengers’ identification documents and the driver’s driving license, and everyone’s cell phones. “When we were taken out of the car, they explained that we were going to be taken to the PNR (National Revolutionary Police) station in Pinar del Río for a document review. They put a PNR officer in the car in which we were traveling and we received the instruction to follow patrol 142, while patrol 112 followed us.”
When they arrived at the station, another counterintelligence officer who identified himself as Alejandro “interrogated the driver”
When they arrived at the station, another counterintelligence officer who identified himself as Alejandro “interrogated the driver” about his ties to Valdés and Izquierdo, the route they had taken, and the reason for the trip to the capital. “The driver related the reality of the events: he had dropped us off at one church and picked us up at another,” the publication says.
Valdés, for his part, was interrogated by the two agents who detained him on the highway
