HAVANA, CUBA — Cuban-born Ariel Limias Leyva, a 52-year-old former Assembly of God pastor and painter at Havana’s San José fair, climbed the steps of the Capitolio in Old Havana shirtless on Friday, October 2, holding a hand-painted, double-sided sign. One side read “No + discriminación, política absurda, abajo la dictadura” (“No more discrimination, absurd politics, down with the dictatorship”); the other read “patria y vida y libertad” (homeland, life, and freedom), a direct rebuttal to Cuba’s national state motto created by Fidel Castro in 1960, “Patria o Muerte” (Homeland or Death) (later changed to “¡Patria o Muerte, Venceremos!” (Homeland or Death, We Shall Overcome!)/

Limias Leyva was swiftly approached by state authorities, detained and held overnight for interrogation at a police station on Dragones Street in Old Havana.

On Saturday morning, he was transferred to Villa Marista, the State Security facility in Havana long used to detain and interrogate government critics.

His wife, Yulia Morales, said he remains incommunicado while under interrogation by political police.