In the same situation are the journalists Reinaldo Escobar and Boris González, the activists Berta Soler and Ángel Moya, and the intellectual Dagoberto Valdés.
MIAMI, United States. – State Security agents detained journalist Yoani Sánchez in the middle of a public street this Wednesday and forced her to return to her home with the order not to leave “until tomorrow,” in an action that would seek to prevent her attendance — along with her husband, Reinaldo Escobar— to a reception at the residence of the US head of mission in Havana, Mike Hammer.
According to the report of 14ymedioSánchez was followed for several minutes by a young man without a uniform, described as being around 25 years old and with his face partially covered, while she tried to communicate to her newsroom what was happening. In that exchange, the agent called her by name; When the journalist asked him to identify himself, “he did not answer” and, instead, made a call to request reinforcements.
The collision occurred “at the height of Ayestarán Avenue and First Street, in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución,” when Sánchez stopped her march and was overtaken by the man who was following her and three other people (a man and two women). There, the two men showed a card with the initials DSE [Departamento de la Seguridad del Estado]while “the women never identified themselves.”
At that point, the agents ordered him to walk home and informed him of the temporary ban on leaving. The journalist reported that they told her that she had to return on foot and that she could not leave “until tomorrow.” The four escorted her to the basement of her home, where, according to the same report, the agents made it explicit that the objective was to thwart the arrival of Sánchez and Escobar at the reception called by Hammer.
The operation also included Reinaldo Escobar, Sánchez’s husband and columnist for 14ymedio. According to the report, when he left through another door of the building, two plainclothes agents prevented him from continuing and forced him to return.
The Havana-based newspaper He specified that the event to which both journalists had been invited was scheduled for 5:00 pm on January 28, at Hammer’s residence and that it marked the beginning of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the United States.
This Wednesday, journalist Boris González and activists Berta Soler and Ángel Moya were also prevented from leaving their home. “Yesterday and today [27 y 28 de enero] Boris González Arenas has had a State Security operation preventing him from leaving home. Thus, with sieges on the homes of activists and arrests of others, the anniversary of the Apostle is lived in today’s Cuba,” reported on Facebook the journalist’s wife, Juliette Isabel Fernández Estrada.
For their part, Soler and Moya told 14ymedio not having been aware of the reception at Hammer’s residence.
Dagoberto Valdés, director of the Center for Coexistence Studies, is also under police siege in his own home, in Pinar del Río. Meanwhile, this Tuesday the writer Ángel Santiesteban Prats was arrested in Havana.
