14ymedio, 5 June 2016 — Environmental activist Inalkis Rodriguez was detained and interrogated on Friday after posting on her Facebook account criticisms of the delay in the construction of a polyclinic in Najasa, Camagüey. Rodriguez, a 14ymedio collaborator, reported that the police erased all the photos from her digital camera and threatened her to not to continue with her work.
Rodriguez posted on social networks a text accompanied by several photographs in which she reported that after 15 years of beginning the project, the local polyclinic still was not open and working. Following the publication of her criticism, the president of the government in Najasa, Kenia Marrero, said that the project would be inaugurated within a short period of time, a promise that has not yet been fulfilled.
At the time of arrest, Rodriguez was taking new pictures on the unfinished work and was intercepted by the official Miguel Fal, who took her to the Najasa police station. Once she was detained, the officers erased all the photos on her camera’s memory.
Before releasing her, the police insisted that Rodriguez sign warning notice that the activist refused to initial. They also questioned her about doing the work of a journalist without having a degree in journalism, an observation Rodriguez responded to by saying that her profession was “veterinarian” but reaffirming her right to criticize because she considers herself a “free” person.
Rodriguez has reported in recent years on the environmental damage suffered in the Camagüey area, particularly deforestation in the Sierra de Cubitas. Many of her texts, published on the Origins blog of this newspaper, denounce the involvement of forest wardens and government officials in the plunder of forest resources and wildlife in the region.
