This newspaper published a statement on April 15 demanding his release and that of José Gabriel Barrenechea, who remains in prison.
14ymedio, Madrid, 30 April 2025 — 14ymedio reporter Yadiel Hernández Hernández, known as Kakashi, was released without charges on Monday after months of near-incommunicado detention in Combinado del Sur prison in Matanzas, Cuba. “Thanks to the solidarity of many, after three months of incarceration, starting yesterday, April 28th, I am free,” he wrote on his Facebook wall on Tuesday.
According to his family, he had to pay a fine of 15,000 pesos, although they still don’t know the exact offense. The journalist was able to communicate over the phone “very briefly,” the source says. When this newspaper learned of Kakashi’s exact whereabouts, his relatives reported that he was charged with “propaganda against the constitutional order.”
On April 15, 14ymedio issued a statement demanding the release of both Yadiel Hernández and José Gabriel Barrenechea, also a contributor to this newspaper and imprisoned in La Pendiente prison in Villa Clara for participating in the Encrucijada protests against the blackouts last November. It called “for the international community to act to protect journalists, victims of the Cuban regime’s arbitrary actions and censorship.”
Open to signatures from organizations and other media, the statement has been signed, so far, by 22 signatories.
Open to signature by organizations and other media, the text has been signed, so far, by 22 signatories, including Civil Rights Defenders, Prisoners Defenders, Cubalex, Justicia 11J, Committee to Protect Journalists, Article19, Cadal, Plataforma Cívica Archipiélago, CubaNet, Árbol Invertido and Alas Tensas.
Yadiel Hernández, 33, a designer and graduate in theological studies as well as an independent journalist, was arrested on January 24 while collaborating with 14ymedio investigating drug trafficking at the Matanzas pre-university school.
Communication with this newspaper has been cut off since then, but initially, the silence was attributed to the long power outages that plagued the island at the time, which also caused frequent internet outages. However, a few weeks later, a source close to Hernández’s family confirmed his arrest: “They detained him and took him away.”
While he was imprisoned at Combinado del Sur, the reporter’s communication with the outside world was very limited, and he was unable to even contact legal advisory organizations or the media.
“He was detained for many days in Versalles,” the source explained at the time, referring to the State Security operations center in Matanzas. “They took him after the incident involving a suspected gas leak at the pre-university school,” the source added, referring to an incident at the José Luis Dubrocq high school, where, according to the official press , several students experienced nausea and discomfort after smelling a strong odor, and some were even hospitalized.
Together with this legislation, the Penal Code and Decree Law 370, they form a clamp that closes on the press.
Although the official version of the incident blamed a student who sprayed pepper spray on a teacher’s motorcycle, causing the student to inhale the substance, the incident fueled rumors about drug use at the high school and the sale of such substances within the school. “The police arrested people who could report what had really happened, and on January 24, they arrested Kakashi, who had been investigating this trafficking network for some time.”
Repression against independent reporters has been a constant in recent decades in Cuba, but it intensified following the popular protests of July 11 and 12, 2021, when social media and outlets not controlled by the Communist Party reported on the scale and desire for political change that characterized the demonstrations. Cuba’s new Social Communications Law, which came into effect on October 4, has tightened the censorship rules. Journalists working outside of official media outlets report an increase in threats and pressure.
Along with this legislation, the Penal Code and Decree Law 370 form a clamp that tightens around the press. The Social Communications Law only recognizes media outlets linked to the regime and marginalizes all independent platforms, many of which are also blocked on national servers. The arrest of reporters, the confiscation of their technological devices, and prison sentences are also part of the repressive scheme against the free flow of information.
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