Havana/The independent journalist Juan González Febles died in Havana this Tuesday at the age of 75, as confirmed to 14ymedio the former political prisoner Ángel Moya. The reporter, who suffered from senile dementia, died around 10 in the morning on October 14 and his body will be laid to rest this afternoon at the Alamar funeral home, in Habana del Este.
Febles was born in Havana on May 21, 1950 and attended his early studies at Candler College, a bilingual school in the Playa municipality. Among his family and friends he was known as Johnny and from very early on he showed an inclination for writing, English music and free expression. His sharp verb earned him praise from his readers but also many problems with the Cuban regime.
During his working life he was a librarian at the House of Culture of the Diez de Octubre municipality and in 1998 he began independent journalism at the Nueva Prensa agency. Those were the years in which the economic crisis that the country was going through and the desire for freedom that had accumulated in Cubans increased popular unrest and the desire to access other types of information, beyond the monopoly of the Communist Party.
In 2007, together with other colleagues, he founded the weekly ‘Primavera Digital’
The repression was targeted against that movement of independent journalists and Febles was the object of defamation campaigns, arbitrary arrests, confiscation of his work materials and constant threats from State Security. During that time he collaborated with several media outlets, including the news portal Cubanet.
In 2007, together with other colleagues, he founded the weekly Digital Spring which became a reference inside and outside the Island. Signatures such as José Antonio Fornaris, Luis Cino, Tania Díaz Castro, Leonardo Calvo, Lucas Garve, Rogelio Fabio Hurtado, Víctor Domínguez, Iván García and Jorge Olivera passed through its numerous editions. Febles’ wife, Ana Torricella, also shared work with him on the editorial board and was in charge of graphic humor.
In the small apartment in the Lawton neighborhood where Febles and Torricella lived, the editorial meetings were held in which the issues of Digital Spring which then circulated, both in digital and printed format, among opponents, activists and ordinary Cubans. Neither the threats nor the arrests, much less the police operations, made both reporters desist from continuing their reporting work.
With his ability to summon other reporters, illustrators and correspondents in various provinces, he was the main pillar of the weekly
Digital Spring It was born at a fateful moment for Cuban independent journalism, just four years after the very hard blow that the Black Spring represented for dissidents on the Island. On the list of the 75 opponents sentenced to prison, a good part had also worked in journalism or collaborated with some media outlet outside the Island.
Febles, with his ability to summon other reporters, illustrators and correspondents in various provinces, was the main pillar of the weekly. His spark, his incisive humor and his ability to tell stories from deep Cuba earned him the admiration and support of many colleagues.
In recent years, senile dementia took its toll on the once lucid reporter and on several occasions he got lost on the streets of Havana. Friends and readers mobilized to find him and help him return home.
