MIAMI, United States. – The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) denounced the beating given this Saturday morning by an agent of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) to the Baracoa activist Yoel Acosta Gámez.
The complaint details that Acosta Gámez was beaten in full view of his relatives, while his sister was threatened with being beaten.
Currently, the activist is detained and awaiting charges, the OCDH said.
At 10:00 this Saturday morning, the Miami-based NGO denounced that Acosta Gámez had been verbally summoned by police officers, using anti-government posters that appeared in his area as an excuse.
In two audios published by the OCDH on Twitter, the activist’s sister says that Acosta Gámez had refused to accompany two police officers who showed up at his home and demanded that he go to the police unit to testify.
Since they did not have a citation document, the independent reporter and activist did not agree to accompany them, said his sister.
After the subsequent visit of the sector chief of his area, Acosta Gámez and several relatives went to the police station. While the family was on the ground floor of the building, waiting for the activist’s interrogation to end, they began to hear the blows and screams that came from the office where the young man was.
The repressive actions against Acosta Gámez have intensified in recent weeks. ANDn September 30, the young man was intercepted on public roads by the political police officer Yasiel Medina Hinojosa, head of confrontation with opponents in the territory, who took him to the delegation of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) in Baracoa.
Once there, Acosta Gámez was subjected to an interrogation. The agents told him that he had to leave the country if he did not want to end up in prison. They also told him that they would take charge of guaranteeing his release.
“I was questioned about the work I was doing here in Baracoa. They told me that I could not continue working as an independent journalist in Baracoa. They told me that if I continued to be, they would take me to prison.” the reporter told CubaNet at that moment.
During the last few months, Yoel Acosta Gámez has published reports on the situation of vulnerability in which several inhabitants of Baracoa find themselves. In most cases, these are people who live in poverty and who demand urgent help from the authorities of that municipality.
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