Vladimir Turró Páez recounts that State Security agents took him to a wooded area and tried to force him to record a video.
14ymedio, Havana, November 13, 2026 / Independent journalist Vladimir Turró Páez reported on Friday that three State Security agents forcibly took him to a remote area of Havana, where they threatened him with a gun while trying to force him to record a video announcing his resignation from CubaNet. The reporter remained in police custody for about ten hours before being released, after receiving further threats of imprisonment if he continued practicing journalism.
The events occurred this Thursday, when Turró was visiting his mother in the Havana municipality of La Lisa. According to his account, three officers arrived at the house and ordered him to accompany them. They forced him into an unmarked car and, during the drive, made him keep his head down between his legs.
The vehicle eventually stopped in a wooded area, far from the usual city activity. There, one of the officers pulled out a pistol while another prepared a phone to record the statement they intended to extract from the journalist.
“They pointed a gun at me and demanded I resign from CubaNet,” Turró reported. According to his testimony, the armed man repeatedly manipulated the magazine and pulled the trigger. The reporter stated that he didn’t know if the gun was loaded and that he feared for his life.
According to Turró’s testimony, the armed man repeatedly manipulated the magazine and pulled the trigger.
The agents insisted he publicly announce his departure from the independent media outlet, but Turró remained silent. Two days earlier, the journalist had received an informal summons to appear at Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters in Havana, but he decided not to attend.
After the episode, he was taken to the Sixth Police Unit, where an officer who said he was from Villa Marista gave him a warning. The officer accused him of “usurpation of legal capacity” and maintained that the practice of independent journalism was not permitted in Cuba.
Turró rejected that argument and reiterated his decision to continue working. He was finally released around 9:00 p.m. “I’m going to keep doing journalism,” he stated in his testimony published by CubaNet.
The incident comes amid a new wave of arrests and threats against independent reporters. On November 5, Yoani Sánchez, director of 14ymedio, was detained for nine hours after being stopped as she left her home in Nuevo Vedado. During her detention, agents of the political police threatened to prosecute her for propaganda against the constitutional order.
Reporters Without Borders denounced on November 9 that these three arrests in just four days constituted a new offensive against press freedom.
Two days earlier, Camila Acosta, a contributor to CubaNet, was arrested while taking her cat to the veterinarian. She spent several hours at a police station and received a 3,000-peso fine, in addition to further threats of imprisonment. On November 2, Adelth Bonne Gamboa, another journalist linked to the same media outlet, had also been arrested.
Reporters Without Borders denounced on November 9 that these three arrests in just four days constituted a new offensive against press freedom. Its director for Latin America, Artur Romeu, demanded an end to the harassment and reiterated that reporting on matters of public interest is not a crime.
The situation is especially serious for Henry Constantín, director of La Hora de Cuba, who has been imprisoned in Camagüey since September and is being held in pretrial detention on charges of disobedience . His case has been denounced by international organizations that are demanding his release.
Intimidation against reporters also includes house surveillance, travel bans, and threats. On November 6, several journalists woke up to find police patrols outside their homes, preventing them from attending a cultural event organized by the U.S. Embassy in Havana.
In Turró’s case, the complaint introduces a particularly alarming element: the use of a firearm to try to obtain a public resignation. His testimony describes an operation designed not only to prevent journalistic coverage, but also to force the reporter to permanently abandon his profession.
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