Mariela Castro’s ‘Security’ Expels Cuban Reporters From a Conference in Spain

Photo from an earlier occasion showing Mariela Castro offending a journalist from HispanoPost who approached her in Madrid. (Screenshot, HispanoPost)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 6 December 2018 — Three correspondents from the independent press CiberCuba were expelled from a public building in Valencia, Spain, by the security chief of Mariela Castro, daughter of former Cuban ruler Raul Castro.

The journalists arrived at the October Cultural Center, a building subsidized by the Spanish State, with the intention of covering a conference session on Cuba, Socialism and Diversity, which was to be given by the director of the National Center for Sex Education (Cenesex).

According to Luis Manuel Mazorra, director of CiberCuba, his site’s journalists were expelled from the event by Mariela Castro’s chief of security, who ordered them to leave.

“When we were expelled from the meeting room, we went to the cafeteria of the building, from where we would not have access to the session but at least we could take some photos of Mariela Castro upon her arrival,” Mazorra said.

But Cuban agents followed them and aggressively photographed them, while defending the Cuban political system and criticizing that of Spain. Subsequently, Mazorra called the Spanish authorities, who supported the journalists.

“They had to restrain Castro’s security chief, and the police explained that under Spanish law they had no right to expel us from the conference or take photos with the intention to intimidate,” the journalist explained.

He also added that “the most ironic thing about this is that Castro went to Valencia to talk about diversity,” and the Cuban authorities showed their “bullshit attitudes.” Those attending the conference were mostly members of organizations that support the Cuban revolution.

“We think it is inadmissible for something like this to happen in Spain, and this city can not open its arms to this type of event,” he said.

Before the conference, Mariela Castro had met with Joan Ribó, mayor of Valencia and a sympathizer of the Latin American left.

Last week Mariela Castro made headlines after the viral dissemination of several photos of her at a dinner where there was lobster , a luxury almost impossible for ordinary Cubans to even imagine. Among the activists of the LGBTI community with her at the dinner was the Spanish singer Pastora Soler, who was then forced to cancel a concert in Miami because of the outrage caused by the photos.

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