Havana/Miami/The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned this Monday the escalation of aggressionharassment and reprisals by the Government of Cuba against journalists from the independent platform The Touchwhich the authorities accuse of “terrorism”, “currency trafficking”, “tax fraud” and “mercenarism” for publishing the informal exchange rate daily.
In a statement, the organization, based in Miami, recalled that the media’s workers have suffered “acts of intimidation, threats and direct pressure,” as well as “defamation campaigns from official media and accounts linked to state institutions.”
“These practices add to a systematic pattern of persecution against independent journalists in Cuba, which includes surveillance, confiscation of equipment, immigration restrictions and harassment of family members,” says the IAPA.
The Touch It has been suffering for weeks from the strongest campaign of attacks of all that the regime has undertaken since in 2021 the independent media, based in Miami, began to publish the price of the dollar on the street outside the official one (1 for 24 pesos for companies and 1 for 120 for individuals).
Last Thursday, the pro-Castro media Cubainformation –following the steps of the official website Reasons for Cuba– published the images of the 18 people that the regime is investigating for their links with The Touch. The note was a succession of posters with the face, name, position they hold in the independent media and their country of residence, and included the names of José Jasán Nieves Cárdenas, Beatriz Valdés Mariño, Alejandro Ulloa García, Melissa Cordero Nova, Jessica Castro Burunate, Glenda Caridad Boza Ibarra, Sadiel Mederos Bermúdez, Enrique Torrez Zamora, Laura Roque Valero, Ana Lidia García Hernández, Eloy Viera Cañive, Abraham Calás Torres, Julio A. Fernández Estrada, Yerisleydys Menéndez García, Jessica Domínguez Delgado, Henry Alfredo Pérez Mora, Roberto Pablo Jiménez González and Janet Aguilar González.
The president of the IAPA reiterated in the statement the “solidarity of the organization with the El Toque team and with all the professionals of the Cuban independent press.”
All of them were identified with their face and job title. Regarding their residences, 13 of them reside in Spain, two in the United States, two in Mexico and one in Canada. This last issue is not trivial: the ruling party has extended its attacks against them since a media based in Spain and that receives financing from the Basque government.
The day before this Wednesday in Cubadebate took advantage of point to various media accounts –including 14ymedio– and journalists or communicators for being located outside the Island, as if it were a revealed secret, when it comes to public information. The majority of the accused have also been pushed into exile due to ideological persecution and companies cannot have headquarters on the Island because media that do not defend the communist model and do not belong to the single party are prohibited.
The editor-in-chief of The Touch, José Jasán Nievesalso warned that the regime is preparing a criminal case against media workers, and that state television revealed personal information and the address of their home, for the purposes of harassment.
The president of the IAPA, Pierre Manigault, reiterated in the statement the “solidarity of the organization with the team of The Touch and with all the professionals of the Cuban independent press who face retaliation for their work.”
The IAPA, made up of more than 1,300 publications from the Americas, is a non-profit entity dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and expression.
