Systematic harassment by the regime, acts of intimidation and threats by State Security, including summonses to his mother, led reporter Nelson Julio Álvarez Mairata to “renounce his profession” and his position as a collaborator in the media digital Cubanet.
A political police agent, whom he identified as First Lieutenant Roberto, warned him that if he did not resign he would be subject to legal proceedings once the new Penal Code was approved and demanded that he make a video talking about his relationship with Cubanet and “his financing” to which he flatly refused.
Álvarez also denounced through your facebook accountwho since 2019, has been subjected to “exhausting hours of interrogations, arrests, warning letters”, including the search of the home where I was living, just for practicing journalism.
The communicator explained that as part of the hate campaign against him, the regime hacked their profiles on social networks to “expose their private life” and make fun of their sexuality and gender identity. “My family has been affected, my mother being summoned for questioning” and intimidated by prohibiting her from leaving the country, as well as Álvarez’s sister, a 17-year-old teenager.
Álvarez also denounced through his Facebook account, that since 2019, he has been subjected to “exhausting hours of interrogations, arrests, warning letters”, including the search of the home
This siege led Álvarez to fall into an episode of burnout, an emotional exhaustion that is reflected in the physical. This harassment that he has suffered from the regime, he indicated, is part of his strategy. “They are a government with resources to repress individual people.”
Police repression and the severity of the legislation against freedom of expression that exists on the Island are the obstacles that journalists face and some have had to emigrate. A situation that could increase in the face of the new Penal Code, which foresees stricter punishments for independent newspapers and magazines that receive financing from abroad.
Similar to Álvarez’s case was that of the independent journalist Cynthia de la Cantera, who on July 24 denounced the harassment that the State Security. In a Facebook post, he told agent Manuel to give him three options: “Collaborate with them, abandon journalism or face the consequences and face criminal proceedings.”
“I decide to give up journalism because I am not willing to accept any of Manuel’s other two options,” said De la Cantera. “It was a decision that I had to make in a matter of a few minutes and, I repeat, under threat. I just say, and I trust: The night will not be eternal“.
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