Berta Soler suffered violence during her arrest, was confined in a dark cell, and interrogated by State Security.
14ymedio, Havana, November 9, 2026 – The leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, was released this Monday after being held by State Security for 46 hours, during which her whereabouts were unknown. Her husband, Ángel Moya, reported the news on social media: “Released bearing the marks of violent repression.”
Moya recounts that Berta Soler was released at around 10 in the morning “in a public area, near the headquarters of the Ladies in White,” in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre. In his message, Moya provides details about an injury the activist sustained to her right foot as a result of the violence during her arrest.
Soler was taken to the Aguilera police station in Diez de Octubre and subsequently to the police unit in Cotorro, where, according to the activist, she received medical attention before being confined in a dark cell.
According to Moya, before her release, Soler was interrogated by an officer from the State Security Investigative Section at Villa Marista. The agent questioned her about what had happened during the peaceful protest in which she was detained, reminded her that she was under a precautionary measure of house arrest that could be revoked, and warned her that she would be summoned soon.
The post includes photographs of the injury Berta Soler sustained to her foot when she was arrested
The post includes photographs of the injury Berta Soler sustained to her foot when she was arrested. Hours earlier, Moya had reported her detention and said he had heard police officers say they had seen his wife “walking with a painful limp.”
According to activist Blanca Reyes, Moya went that same day to the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) unit in Aguilera, in Lawton, in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre, to find out where the opposition activist was being held, “since she was beaten and no one knows whether she is in a police station or a hospital.” Reyes said: “The situation of our sister is worrying.”
According to Moya’s account, on Saturday, two days after she had been arrested for several hours along with fellow Lady in White María Cristina Labrada–Yoani Sánchez, director of 14ymedio, was also arbitrarily detained that same Thursday–Berta Soler joined a “public and peaceful protest” alongside about twenty Lawton residents affected by the lack of water. The water shortage, the opposition activist maintains, was “intentional,” caused by the state-owned company Aguas de La Habana to harm the headquarters of the Ladies in White and the area “within a 50-meter radius.”
“Several repressive State Security chiefs” arrived at the scene, spoke with the women making the demands, and gradually reinforced the security operation over the following hours.
Shortly after 10 that morning, “several repressive State Security chiefs” arrived at the scene, spoke with the women making the demands, and gradually reinforced the security operation over the following hours. “At noon, representatives of the state-owned company Aguas de La Habana arrived and gave an explanation that did not convince the protesting women either,” Moya recounts. His impression was that the authorities “had no intention of resolving the cause of the problem, which was the intentional manipulation of the water supply valve.”
In the absence of a response, half an hour later the demonstrators blocked traffic on Porvenir Avenue, “using their own bodies as a barrier.” Moya says he did not witness how the protest ended because he had already been arrested by the political police and been taken to the Aguilera station, where he heard that his wife was walking in pain and that she had subsequently “been transported in a patrol car to another unidentified location.”
After an eight-hour interrogation, Moya was released, but his wife was not. The activist also clarified that “with the exception of Berta Soler, none of the women making demands and protesting belong to organizations opposed to the Cuban communist regime; they are workers.”
In recent weeks, the regime has intensified its persecution of activists and journalists on the Island. Also on Saturday, dozens of residents took to the streets in El Cobre (Santiago de Cuba) to demand the release of Yoel Alejandro Pérez Serrano, a young activist known for his community work who had been arrested hours earlier by State Security in an operation involving armed agents.
Rolando Pérez Lora, an evangelical pastor known as Pregonero de Cristo, was forcibly transferred from Havana to Las Tunas, where he was released this Monday
As for independent journalists, prior to Yoani Sánchez, Adelth Bonne Gamboa and Camila Acosta, contributors to CubaNet, had been detained earlier in the same week.
Meanwhile, Rolando Pérez Lora, an evangelical pastor known as Pregonero de Cristo [Herald of Christ], was forcibly transferred from Havana to Las Tunas, where he was released this Monday, with a police summons still pending. According to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights and the Alliance of Christians of Cuba, Pérez Lora had been detained while providing pastoral support to a young Christian member of the religious organization, who was also arrested.
In mid-September, State Security also detained Henry Constantín, director of La Hora de Cuba. In his case, unlike the colleagues mentioned above, he was not released but taken to Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey, where he remains in pretrial detention, accused of the offense of disobedience.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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