Cuban journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa was leaving his home in the capital Havana, this Sunday morning (14), to take out the garbage when he realized that the place was surrounded by police officers. Agents informed him of an alleged house arrest order, so Jiménez, one of the leading voices of independent journalism in the country, cannot leave his home.
The encirclement of the press on the Caribbean island has intensified in recent days due to the proximity of protests against the regime led by Miguel Díaz-Canel, scheduled for this Monday (14). Abraham, a columnist for the American newspaper The Washington Post, is just one example of the attempt to silence dissenting voices.
This Saturday (13), correspondents for the EFE news agency in the country said that the Cuban government had withdrawn their credentials from all of them in Havana. Atahualpa Amerise, the branch coordinator, reported on a social network that his credential had been taken months earlier, in August. “Cuban authorities argued that EFE had put its editorial line at the service of the counterrevolution.”
According to the journalist, no motivation was given for the removal of credentials from other reporters. He credits the move, however, to the Spanish agency’s coverage of the July 11 protests, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets, in the biggest popular acts in decades on the island.
This Sunday, EFE reported that two agency correspondents had their credentials returned after talks between the Spanish embassy and the Cuban Foreign Ministry. The other four employees at the site, including Amerise, are still not allowed to work.
On social media, journalists continue to report on the measures taken by the regime. Abraham, in a string of tweets, said agents disguised as civilians had been monitoring the streets of Havana and that, since Saturday, several activists and journalists had been under siege so they could not leave their homes and cover the protests.
In another post, he reports that the internet in the country is already starting to fail – during the demonstrations on the 11th, called for in large part by social networks, the internet was cut off on the island.
According to the most recent survey by the local NGO Cubalex, at least 1,270 people, including minors, were detained for taking part in the demonstrations on July 11, and the cases brought against the protesters include requests for more than 30 years in prison.
For this Saturday, a protest was scheduled for the playwright Yunior García, leader of the Archipiélago movement, which organizes the summons for the peaceful march on Monday. He would walk the streets of Havana, alone, with white roses. Throughout the day, reports on social networks informed that the artist’s house, in the La Coronela neighborhood, was surrounded by undercover police.
“My house woke up under siege, the whole place is surrounded by state security agents dressed as civilians and posing as the people,” Yunior said in a morning Facebook broadcast. A team from the AFP news agency found that their street was blocked by a group of police officers.
Officials climbed onto roofs and placed large Cuban flags there. From the window, on the third floor of the building, Yunior showed a white rose. “I’m ready, as you can see, dressed in white with a rose, and when the time is right, I’ll leave the house.”
The United States, which for six decades has imposed an economic blockade on the island, urged the government to allow Cubans to freely demonstrate. In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked that communication and internet connection be maintained to allow the exchange of information between people.
In Miami, a hub for Cubans and lobbying against the island’s communist regime, around 200 people demonstrated this Sunday in support of Monday’s protests. Protesters carried posters with slogans such as “Down with the dictatorship” and “freedom.”
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