Villa Marista is a prison in Havana, Cuba, notorious for its detention of political prisoners by the Cuban national security agency.[1][2]
Its prisoners have included poet Nicolas Guillén, dissident Vladimiro Roca, and politician Jesús Escandell.
Villa Marista was originally a Catholic school for boys prior to the Castro revolution. The school was run by the Marist Brothers, and the name Marist used because was Marcellin Champagnat, a Marist Priest, was the founder of the Marist Brothers.
Once the Castro Revolution expropriated the school and grounds from the Marist Brothers, the brothers were spread to other Marist schools around the world, including but not limited to Miami, Florida USA, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico. In addition to the school in Havana the Marist Brothers also had another school in the city of Cienfuegos.