The protest called by the Cuban activists against the police violence that the island is experiencing after the death of the young Hansel Hernandez and against the violence and arbitrary arrests of the Cuban police was to take place at 11 am on Tuesday in front of the well-known Yara cinema. 

Bruguera had told her sister Deborah that she planned to attend, something she also reported on her Facebook wall. However, by the time the protests began, visual artist Tania Bruguera had already been abducted for several hours. 

Those responsible for her kidnapping took her from the basement of her building, located in Havana's El Vedado neighbourhood, without leaving any trace, unless it was brought to light. So far her whereabouts are unknown.

The artist, who is very active in her criticism of the Cuban regime and defender of artists' rights against censorship, had shown her support for the protest over the murder of the young Hansel E. Hernández through the networks of the Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism, which she runs in Havana. 

Hernandez, of Afro-Cuban descent and who some media describe as the Cuban George Floyd, was allegedly killed by two patrolmen on June 24. According to the official version, the young man had attacked the police officers with stones, although these have not been found and neither have his killers been identified. 

More than a hundred political prisoners are still in Cuban jails, reported Diario de las Américas. Recently, dissident José Daniel Ferrer and his son, who were participating in the protests over the death of Hansel Hernández in Santiago de Cuba, were arrested.

The aunt of the murdered man wrote on his Facebook wall:

"We, the relatives, ask that this cruel act, at the hands of our supposed national security, not go unpunished. Because the police uniform does not give them the right to kill anyone in this way."

The question is pertinent: Is the artist's disappearance related to her political activism and her open opposition to violence and arbitrary arrests on the island?