Several activists and opponents, in Havana and in the province, were arrested or surrounded in their homes.
14ymedio, Havana, 2 July 2025 — As happens every year, the celebration of US Independence Day becomes an uncomfortable date for the Cuban regime. This Wednesday, several independent journalists, activists and opponents denounced the police surrounding their homes to prevent them from attending the official reception organized by the chargé d’affaires of Washington in Havana, Mike Hammer.
Journalist Reinaldo Escobar reported that agents of State Security prevented him from leaving his home in the neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado, both to attend a family lunch and for the July 4 celebration, scheduled for 7:00 pm at Hammer’s residence in the municipality of Playa.
“I tried to go, I was going to a lunch, but an agent of State Security intercepted me and told me that I couldn’t leave,” he confirmed. Since the early morning, on the ground floor of the building where 14ymedio is located, a permanent operative was deployed, according to several neighbors.
For Escobar, the crackdown on party guests is “disrespectful to the American nation.” The reporter wonders “how ‘friends of Cuba in Washington’ would react if the FBI prevented them from attending the festivities for July 26 at the Cuban embassy.”
“A State Security officer intercepted me and told me that I could not leave”
In a similar situation is Manuel Cuesta Morúa, vice-president of the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, who claimed to be under close surveillance at his home in Alamar, in the municipality of Habana del Este. Also, activist Marthadela Tamayo and rapper Osvaldo Navarro reported on social networks that the headquarters of the cultural project Di.Verso remains surrounded by agents dressed in civilian clothes.
The same measure has been applied against former political prisoner Óscar Elías Biscet and his wife, activist Elsa Morejón, in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton, as well as against the opponent Librado Linares, in the municipality of Camajuaní in Villa Clara, to whom “an officer on a motorcycle verbally announced” the movement restriction.
For her part, Lady in White Maria Cristina Labrada reported on her Facebook page: “My house is besieged by servants of the Communist Party and the Department of State Security.” Labrada described the presence of two women dressed as civilians stationed at the corner of their house on Cortina street, Milagros corner, in the neighborhood of Santos Suárez. A neighbor alerted her to the operative from early hours. “Always, even with fear, they sympathize with me,” she added, referring to her neighbors.
“An officer on a motorcycle verbally announced” the movement restriction
Labrada also published a list of other opponents under house arrest, including the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler – who was arrested – and activists Bárbaro de la Nuez and Juan Alberto de la Nuez Ramirez. This newspaper was also able to confirm that journalist Boris González Arenas had surveillance around his house.
Another case is that of former political prisoner Ángel Moya Acosta, intercepted by political police agents around 9:30 am on Wednesday morning as he was walking along Calle E and Avenida Porvenir, in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton.
“One of the operatives, who identified himself as an officer of State Security, told me that I could not go to Martha Beatriz Roque’s house and urged me to return to the headquarters of the Ladies in White,” said Moya in a message sent from his mobile phone shortly before being held incommunicado. He said that his neighbors had alerted him to the presence of a patrol car and plain-clothes officers outside the headquarters of the opposition movement.
Arrests and similar operations have also been reported outside Havana
Roque, also a former political prisoner of the Black Spring, had declined Hammer’s invitation for health reasons. “I can’t walk,” she told this newspaper. The concentration of police around her house suggests that the intention was not only to prevent her attendance but also to avoid any meeting or connection between dissidents on the eve of the celebration.
Outside Havana, similar arrests and operations have also been reported in recent days, which could be related to both the 4the of July event and another key date: the anniversary of the 11 July 2021 protests.
On 23 June, during an interrogation in Pinar del Río of the two main members of the Centro de Estudios Convivencia, Dagoberto Valdés and Yoandy Izquierdo, an officer warned them that this year they would not allow “people from the provinces” to attend the Independence Day event.
The regime has been waging an intense campaign against diplomat Mike Hammer since his appointment
In Camagüey, journalist Henry Constantín – director of the independent newspaper La Hora de Cuba – has been detained since Sunday, when he accompanied his colleague Iris Mariño to a police summons. In Santiago de Cuba, Nelva Ortega, wife of political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer, was arrested on Tuesday while demanding proof of life for the opposition leader, currently on a hunger strike.
The regime has been waging an intense campaign against diplomat Mike Hammer since his appointment as head of mission at the US Embassy in Cuba. The media offensive has increased as Hammer has developed a style of direct diplomacy, going through neighborhoods, greeting passers-by and visiting the homes of activists and opponents, in contrast to his predecessors.
Traditionally, the American independence celebration is attended not only by independent activists and journalists but also by artists, Catholic priests and a wide diplomatic representation from other countries.
“This is not a meeting for guidance from the CIA or the State Department, as the regime tries to make it”
“In previous years there was no surveillance to prevent the participation of civil society at these celebrations,” recalled journalist Camila Acosta, also under house arrest on Wednesday. “But now, with a new administration in Washington that has increased the pressure against the regime, and an ambassador who has visited almost all of Cuba in a few months and has a more confrontational stance, they want to prevent us from going.”
Acosta stressed the informal nature of the event: “This is not a meeting to receive guidance from the CIA or the State Department, as the Cuban regime tries to make it. What is happening is a party. But their objective is to isolate us, to prevent us from having contact with US diplomats and with each other.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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