MADRID, Spain.- The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) condemned the constant harassment and arrest, on April 30, of independent Cuban journalists Henry Constantín and Neife Rigau.
The IAPA explained that the reporters were arrested when they were leaving a function at the Teatro Principal in the city of Camagüey, without the regime authorities presenting legal documents for the arrest or explaining the reasons.
Henry Constantín and Neife Rigau, director and photographer of the magazine Cuban Timerespectively, were transferred to the headquarters of State Security Operations, in the Garrido neighborhood, points out a release published this Thursday by the IAPA.
There, Constantín “was the victim of abuse by an officer of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) who pushed him hard and then stepped on his foot,” the information refers.
Both journalists were taken to their home, around which State Security maintained surveillance throughout the day; as he did with other reporters in the days leading up to May Day.
Presumably, the arrest was due to a publication made on Facebook by Rigau, in which the photojournalist criticized the celebration of May Day and advised not to participate in the march orchestrated by the regime.
“The action is framed in a context of repression, police persecution and intolerance of criticism and disrespect for freedom of expression and the press,” denounces the IAPA.
Repression of independent Cuban journalists in recent months
The Inter-American Press Association had already recently denounced the harassment of reporters on the island. During its Mid-Year Meeting last April, it presented a report on violations of freedom of expression in Cuba.
“The epidemic that most affects the country is repression, which rebounded in the last semester with severe sentences for citizens who participated in the protests on July 11, 2021,” the document said.
For its part, the Association for Freedom of the Press (APLP) from Cuba denounced at the beginning of this month that in April there were 25 new attacks against 18 journalists, “a common practice of the regime to try to silence those who report the reality of the country.”
Recently, Cuba once again ranked as the worst country in Latin America in terms of freedom of the press. The Island was located in position number 173, almost at the end of the listin the World Press Freedom Index carried out annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
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