Photo: Cubalex Archive.
En Cuba, las detenciones arbitrarias son una práctica frecuente utilizada por el Estado para reprimir la protesta pacífica, intimidar a la ciudadanía y castigar el ejercicio de derechos fundamentales. Ante este escenario, es vital que la población cuente con herramientas claras para documentar cada detalle de una detención.
Cubalex ha preparado esta guía práctica con preguntas esenciales que permiten recopilar información útil para la defensa de los derechos de la persona detenida, así como para denunciar las violaciones cometidas. Tomar nota de dónde, cuándo, cómo y quién ejecuta la detención no solo contribuye a exigir justicia en el ámbito nacional e internacional, sino que también protege a la comunidad frente a la impunidad.
1- Where did the arrest take place?
Identify the province, municipality, and area, including landmarks. This information is important for determining the competent court. In this case, it is important to report the location where the person was arrested and taken. If the arrest occurred on the street, note the street address and also the address of the police station or training unit to which the person was taken. Detainees may be transferred from one detention center to another. This information is also important.
2- When and at what time does the arrest occur?
Identify the date of the detention: (day, month, and year). This is relevant to determine when the violation began and to count the number of days the person has been missing. The exact or approximate time allows us to calculate the hours the person has been detained or missing and the legal deadlines, especially the time of communication with family or friends to inform them of the detention, as regulated by the Criminal Procedure Law (Art. 347 and Art. 130.1 b) and the Constitution (Art. 95, section h), or the time the authorities have held them without granting them the right to a lawyer, without formally charging them, and without imposing a precautionary measure, which should not exceed 24 hours.
3- Who made the arrest?
Report the rank and/or military position of the state agent responsible for the arrest or detention (criminal investigator). If this information is unavailable, it is helpful to identify them by their physical characteristics, alias, where they regularly operate, the registration number on the left pocket of their uniform shirt in the case of police officers, or the type of uniform if they belong to another branch of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), for example: black berets, red berets (Revolutionary Armed Forces), soldiers on Active Military Service (SMA), or members of the Youth Labor Army (EJT).
Please note that these people may be part of a rudimentary armed group (with sticks) pretending to be civilians.
Report whether members of the Rapid Response Brigades participated in the arrest and whether they used violence at the time of the arrest.
If the arrest was made by an undercover State Security agent, it is important to ask if the detainee knew the agent beforehand because they had been systematically harassed ("The colleague who is handling this"). Ask if they know the agent's alias and any other evidence that could help identify them. Audio recordings of the agents' voices and photographs are evidence that can facilitate identification.
4- Has he/she been identified by other people previously?
This information is relevant for using international accountability mechanisms against perpetrators of human rights violations.
5- Did they identify themselves before the arrest and state the reason why they were identifying themselves??
If they were people in civilian clothes, add whether they showed any ID that identified them as state agents or if the person presented themselves in some way, explained the reasons for the arrest and if they referred to any legal motivation.
6- How was the arrest carried out??
This question is important to determine whether state agents improperly used force and violence against the detained person or subjected them to torture practices during their arrest.
Los imputados (detenidos) deben recibir durante todo el proceso un trato humano y digno (Inc. a – Art. 130) (Ley 143 del Proceso Penal Art.130.1 a derecho a un trato humano y digno)
7- Under what conditions were you arrested and taken to a detention center?
Torture techniques: whether they used excessive violence and force, whether they beat him, whether they injured him and with what instrument, whether they applied restraint techniques, whether they tightened the handcuffs to intentionally cause pain, whether they exposed him to high temperatures; for example: locked in a hermetically sealed vehicle (greenhouse effect, a practice known as oven patrol).
Verbal insults are also a form of violence, and if they are related to skin color, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation, it is also humiliating treatment.
Threats. For example: with dogs or with sexual abuse, intimidation with firearms, with taking his life or physically disappearing.
Humiliating treatment: if they undressed him or tore his clothes. If they forced him to squat while searching for objects in his genitals.
8- For what reasons can a person be arrested?
It is important to describe whether the arrest occurred in the context of a protest, a specific event, while performing duties as a journalist, and any other circumstance that allows identifying a violation of a fundamental right.
Cubalex emphasizes the importance of legally documenting all violations that occur during arbitrary detention. The compilation of this documentation serves as a basis for filing complaints with international organizations, thus contributing to documenting the current human rights situation in Cuba.