He case of Javier Ernesto Martín Gutiérrez, known as “Spiderman”, This case has demonstrated several of the stages and forms that political repression takes in Cuba today. First, he was the victim of arbitrary arrest and a short-term enforced disappearance resulting from it. Second, he was beaten during his arrest. Third, he is a victim of psychological torture at the Villa Marista detention center, another tool used by the authorities to try to invalidate the legitimacy of his protests and criminalize the exercise of his rights. All of this is in blatant violation of Cuban law and international human rights standards.
Although in article 51 of the Cuban Constitution The prohibition of torture and enforced disappearance is established, and in the Penal Code of 2022 While articles 367 and 368 punish those who commit both acts, the reality is quite different. Cuban authorities engage in practices that constitute torture and enforced disappearance almost daily. These include: pressure and psychological diagnosis against those who oppose the regime in any way, as well as their arrest and subsequent transfer to an unknown location.
Arbitrary detention, short-term enforced disappearance, and physical violence
On April 24, Cubalex he warned Regarding the arbitrary arrest and subsequent short-term enforced disappearance of Javier. He was arrested with extreme violence after a peaceful protest held at his homea, in the Marianao municipality, Havana. During the first hours following his arrest, his whereabouts remained unknown.
His family went to the police station in the aforementioned municipality, but the authorities denied that he was there. Furthermore, they took no action to help them locate Javier.
By concealing his location for several hours, the Cuban State violated the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, a treaty to which it has legal obligations Since February 2, 2009, this practice places the person outside the protection of the law, preventing them from accessing a lawyer since their family knows their whereabouts. It was also learned that when the young man was detained, the public officials subjected him to a beating, and they did not show him a valid arrest warrant, which stated the reasons for his arrest.
The disproportionate use of police force occurs when physical measures or weapons exceeding the actual threat are employed, thereby violating human rights such as the right to life and physical integrity, freedom of movement, the presumption of innocence, and the right to the fullest enjoyment of health. International standards require that force be exceptional, lawful, necessary, and proportionate, based on principles of the United Nations (UN), such as the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, among other international standards.
Days after his arrest, and in an attempt to justify it, official media outlets such as Reasons for Cuba They have spread the word that Javier shouted daily from his balcony. This argument, they suggested, stems from alleged erratic behavior and a tendency toward suffering from some psychological illness. However, his sister, Yuneysi Gutiérrez, in communications with Cubalex, has categorically denied these claims. This discrepancy is not insignificant. It demonstrates the Cuban authorities' intention to fabricate a profile of “social dangerousness” or “mental imbalance” to undermine the legitimacy of their act of protest. This, in turn, is another way the Cuban state criminalizes peaceful protest. The public defamation of Javier violates his rights to honor and dignity, recognized in Articles 11 and 17 of the Constitution. American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, respectively.
Villa Marista: a center of psychological torture
Cubalex has documented the use of psychological torture in Cuba, which is why Javier's internment in Villa Marista, the headquarters of the State Security Department in the capital, The fact that a “clinical evaluation” is not an isolated case, but rather part of a pattern of behavior by Cuban authorities, is not a case of isolated incidents. At the same time, it is one of the biggest legal irregularities in this case.
Like the former Soviet Union, the Cuban state uses medicine to break the will of activists and destroy their public image. In recent years, we have documented cases of political opponents, human rights activists, and independent journalists subjected to forced treatments. like the one from Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara or the journalist Omar Suárez Campos demonstrate that psychiatric confinement is a tool of punishment when the conventional criminal justice system is not enough to silence them and prevent them from exercising their rights.
In parallel, the use of electroshocks and the forced administration of neuroleptics and psychotropic drugs has been denounced, as happened with Luis Pérez Quintana and Pascual Ovidio Delgado to "soften up" the detainees.
In Villa Marista, this environment of confinement, combined with non-consensual medication, aims at the psychological destruction of the individual. This practice by the authorities also seeks to instill social terror, as seen in cases like that of Juan Carlos González (“Pánfilo”), who was institutionalized after shouting that Cubans were hungry. The message is clear: any social protest can be punished with the loss of one's mental health under state custody.
The use of psychiatry in detention and interrogation centers like Villa Marista constitutes a direct violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which obliges the protection of people's mental integrity. The Cuban State has legal obligations with respect to this international treaty since May 17, 1995. It also constitutes a violation of the UN Principles of Medical Ethics, These treaties recognize that it is illegal for healthcare personnel to participate, actively or passively, in acts of torture or interrogation. A genuine psychiatric evaluation must be conducted in an independent civilian hospital, not in a police training center where doctors answer to military command. Furthermore, the use of diagnoses to silence opponents violates these principles. Principles for the Protection of the Mentally Ill and the Improvement of Mental Health Care also from the UN. They prohibit a diagnosis from being based on political or social conflicts.
Javier Martín's situation is not a medical matter, but a political and legal one. Above all, it is a question of respect for his rights and compliance with the State's international obligations. Nor is it an isolated case of arbitrary detention and psychological evaluation. On the contrary, it represents the continuation of a systematic pattern of human rights violations employed by the Cuban State, combining physical repression with the pathologization of dissent. As long as Javier remains in Villa Marista under the control of the political police, any “diagnosis” lacks legal and ethical validity., and it is nothing more than a way of extending the arbitrary nature of his detention, while criminalizing him for exercising his rights.
From Cubalex, we demand respect for his physical and mental integrity, immediate access to independent legal defense, and an end to the use of medicine as punishment against him and others who peacefully protest in Cuba.