Cuban State Security Interrogates And Threatens Young LGBTI Leader / Cubanet, Alejandro Tur Valladares

Dr. Nelson Gandulla (Courtesy)

cubanet square logoCubanet,  Alejandro Tur Valladares, Havana, 12 December 2016 – Dr. Nelson Gandulla Diaz, a national delegate to the Cuban Foundation for LGBTI Rights, headquartered in Cienfuegos, was interrogated by Cuban State Security officials after being cited to appear at the offices of Emigration and Aliens on 10 December.

Gandulla said that the interrogation began at 9:00 in the morning and continued to 11:30 AM. He was questions by an official who called herself Patricia, and Captains Ihosvani and Angel.

According to the activist, the agents wanted to investigate his numerous work trips outside the country and whether some NGO financed his activities and who he met with. Particular emphasis was given to asking about his presumed ties to the Colombian organization Affirmative Caribbean and the Czech organization People in Need.

The doctor said that one of those present told him that the organizations that he works for, according to his interrogator, use their discourse to attack the official National Center of Sex Education and its director, Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuba’s current ruler.

After confirming that Gandulla was not a “collaborator” with the purposed of the political commissars who were questioning him, the conversation changed in tone. “They threatened me, they told me that continuing my activities on behalf of the Cuban LGBTI community was not consistent with what could happen to me and to my family.”

According to Gandulla, a leader of the Foundation, the threats included prohibitions on holding activities in his home, under penalty of going to prison.