Cuban detained outside Havana Capitol for protesting against dictatorship
Ariel Limias Leyva, 52, was arrested after carrying a placard outside the Havana Capitol. He remains held incommunicado at Dragones police station.
Arrest at Havana Capitol following protest with placard against dictatorship
Ariel Limias Leyva, a 52-year-old Cuban, was detained on Friday after ascending the steps of the Havana Capitol — seat of the National Assembly of People's Power — shirtless and carrying cardboard over his head that read "No more absurd political discrimination, down with the dictatorship". According to cibercuba.com, his identity and current situation were confirmed through an investigation by CubaNet.
The protest occurred around two o'clock in the afternoon and concluded with his arrest. His wife, Yulia Morales, confirmed that Limias Leyva remains held at Dragones police station in Old Havana, held incommunicado and interrogated by political police agents. "They have him incommunicado. I was not able to see him. We have no news of his condition," Morales told CubaNet.
Limias Leyva is a former pastor of the Asamblea de Dios church and works as a painter at the San José fair on Avenida del Puerto. He resides with his wife on Jesús María street in Old Havana.
Wife rules out links to opposition movements
Morales stressed that her husband "is not an activist nor part of any movement" and that, before leaving the house, he told her: "Someone has to do it for our country".
The immediate trigger was the trial held the previous day, when the Popular Municipal Court of Havana East condemned content creator Anna Bensi and her mother, Caridad Silvente, to two years of restricted liberty for having filmed and disseminated on social networks the visit of a MININT agent to their home.
That same 1 October, evangelical pastor Rolando Fidel Pérez Lora, known as "Pregonero de Cristo", was detained when he attempted to approach the court to support the accused, within the framework of a broad police and State Security operation.
Father-in-law publicly holds dictatorship responsible
Limias Leyva's father-in-law, Jose Antonio Morales, posted on Facebook: "I hold the Cuban dictatorship responsible for whatever might happen to my son-in-law in Cuba, who was detained for demonstrating in support of mother and daughter and for the abuse against the evangelical pastor".
In videos disseminated of the protest, a witness among the small crowd can be heard: "They are going to make him disappear, they are going to make him disappear. Now nobody will join him".
Background of street protests
This is not the first time Limias Leyva has taken to the streets to protest. He had done so on 5 April 2021 and 17 July of that same year — days after the historic protests of 11 July — when he walked through Havana streets with a placard reading "Freedom" and was arrested, receiving only a fine on that occasion. Neighbours described him to CubaNet as "just another Cuban who was suffocating and went out to the street to claim his rights".
Context of increasing repression
The detention occurs in a climate of increasing repression: September 2026 accumulated 663 protests and 136 acts of repression, while Cubalex documented nearly 2,000 repressive actions during the first half of the year, with Havana being the province with the highest number of recorded violations.
Source: Google News CU — Crime