The online news source did not reveal the identity of any of those affected “to avoid further reprisals”
14ymedio, Havana, 4 October 2024 — A group of journalists and Cubanet collaborators has suffered “threats, intimidation, arrests and confiscation of work assets and money in recent days.” This was announced by the online news source in an alert published this Thursday, warning about the Regime’s “repressive escalation” after the new Social Communication Law went into effect this week.
Cubanet did not reveal the identity of those affected, “to avoid further reprisals,” but it reports that they were threatened with ” prison sentences” and consequences for their families. They have also been filmed by agents for hours – something they describe as “psychological torture” – and had their electronic devices and money taken away from them.
Although it admits that this is a “common tactic” of State Security, Cubanet draws attention to the “increasing wave of harassment,” not only against independent journalists but also against opponents who publicly denounce the country’s crisis.
The objective of the political police – “to suppress critical voices and avoid the dissemination of information not controlled by the State” – remains the same, but with the entry into force of the law the State has one more legal tool to repress, Cubanet points out. It is a “new instrument of the Cuban authorities to limit freedom of expression and access to information,” which has been condemned by several international organizations, such as the Inter-American Press Society.
The objective of the political police is to “suppress critical voices and avoid the dissemination of information not controlled by the State”
The truth is that, despite the law’s entry into force, the situation of the independent press remains as vulnerable and dangerous as that of the previous day. The exercise of non-state journalism was already punishable by the Constitution, the Criminal Code and Decree Law 370.
Responses cannot be demanded from leaders – a right reserved for State reporters – and any critical information provided is considered an act of “communicational aggression that takes place against the country” or an instigation to “terrorism and war in any of its forms and manifestations, including cyberwar.” Nor does the law provide new penalties, since it does not mention possible sanctions for those who break the law and refers to other documents to resolve each case.
Despite this, several independent journalists have already published statements on their social networks that imply that they have been intimidated and forced to resign from their work. This was the case of Yennys Hernández and Annery Rivera – collaborators of several media such as Periodismo de Barrio and Cuba Próxima – who said this Thursday that they would not “collaborate and/or participate in any media or project of an independent nature and/or considered subversive or contrary to the interests of the Cuban government.”
The situation is similar to that which occurred in September 2022, when at least 16 members of the El Toque team living in Cuba were forced to resign from their work on the newspaper. At that time, its managers denounced the “sick insistence” of the Cuban political police to obtain “confessions” on video from the journalists, which they then manipulated and broadcast on Cuban Television.
In recent months, several Cubanet collaborators have suffered outright harassment by State Security. This was the case of the Camagüeyan journalist José Luis Tan Estrada, who on Thursday held State Security responsible for “anything” that happened to him after the Regime’s “repressive escalation.” On the eve of the anniversary of the 11 July 2021 protests, Tan Estrada was arrested and interrogated. He was forbidden at that time to attend public places under the threat of going to prison for disobedience and contempt, or to publish statements about the date on his social networks.
However, Tan Estrada told the story of his arrest on his Facebook page. While connecting to the Internet in the Agramonte park in the city of Camagüey, he was approached by a political police officer who arbitrarily arrested him. He was transferred in a patrol car to the Third Monte Carlos Unit of the National Revolutionary Police where he was intimidated. “They gave me a warning letter, which I didn’t sign,” he said.
Journalist Camila Acosta and her partner, the writer Ángel Santiesteban, have also been harassed on several occasions for denouncing the involvement of State Security in the crisis that for nine months shook the leadership of Cuban Freemasonry. Acosta is responsible for the first reports on the theft, last January, of 19,000 dollars from the office of Grand Master Mario Urquía Carreño.
Acosta’s coverage of several meetings of the Freemasons put her in the crosshairs of the offensive that several Regime spokesmen, such as the so-called Cuban Warrior, carried out against the independent press. The Cuban Warrior not only tried to discredit Acosta’s work but also her personal life, spreading rumors and false information.
Acosta’s coverage of several meetings of the Masons put her in the crosshairs of an offensive from several of the Regime’s spokesmen
Santiesteban, for his part, was briefly arrested in July and accused by the official YouTuber of “revealing Masonic matters to the profane,” that is, to those not initiated in the order. Acosta denounced the arrest as “a direct affront to Freemasonry” and accused the police of giving the protest of July 23 – in which the Freemasons demanded explanations for the robbery – “a political connotation” to justify the arrest of several Freemasons critical of the Regime, such as Santiesteban.
The Cuban Warrior also launched the now usual accusation against Acosta and Santiesteban: that every independent journalist is an undercover agent of the CIA.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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