14ymedio, Havana, 22 May 2019 — Cuban authorities prevented several collaborators of the magazine La Hora de Cuba, Inalkis Rodríguez, Iris Mariño and Sol García, from boarding a flight to attend an event in Trinidad and Tobago on the participation of women, to which they had been invited by the Simone de Beauvoir Leadership Institute.
Before leaving for the capital to take the flight, and so as to ensure they would “not make the trip in vain,” they passed through the Immigration office in Camagüey, Inalkis Rodríguez told 14ymedio in a telephone conversation.
“As soon as we said our names they explained that we were ‘regulated’ [the official euphemism for ‘banned from leaving the country’] and when we asked for more explanations they only added that it was “for reasons of public interest.”
In this case, as has happened in previous situations with other civil society activists or independent journalists, the immigration authorities did not explain what steps a person should take to appeal the so-called ‘regulation.’ “Ask the Prosecutor’s Office” was the response obtained by the La Hora de Cuba journalists.
Previously been banned from leaving the country were Isel Arango, the director of the magazine, as well as Henry Constantín, regional vice president for Cuba at the Inter-American Press Association (SIP), who, after two years of being banned from traveling abroad was allowed to leave the country a few weeks ago.
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