Havana/We do a high -risk journalism in a country subject to a regime that represses freedom of expression and press, in addition to having brought our nation to complete destruction and misery, which has forced hundreds of thousands of Cubans to flee from an island that was prosperous.
In this context it works 14ymedio For 11 years, with our digital site blocked and several collaborators detained without trial.
Among the risks we face every day is to fall into the traps of a perverse regime. And, despite the insistence of one of our sources – now suspiciously silent – to point to Berto Savina As the driver of a red Audi responsible for the multiple outrage of August 25 in Havana, with the death of a mother and eight injured, the elements published by the Prosecutor’s Office after our article point to another Italian, former police officer Mario Pontolillo.
The testimony of this source was not the only indication we had to point to Savina. As we needed in our first note, two neighborhood sources confirmed the exit of a Red Audi from Street E, in El Vedado, driven at full speed by a man who had just had a violent discussion in a building whose photo we published. We taught the neighbors photographs of the Italian businessman indicated by our first source, and his comments made us conclude that it was him. “Don’t ask much, that’s in Candela,” they warned the reporters of this newspaper.
We taught the neighbors photographs of the Italian businessman indicated by our first source, and his comments made us conclude that it was he
In the hours that followed the outrage, a reporter of ours had collected testimonies at the scene of the event, around Galiano Street (Centro Habana), and We point out that it was Italianwhile social networks insisted that he was Cuban American.
With these data, we begin to contact known Italians residing in Havana. None had information, until we managed to find an outstanding member of the Italian community in Cuba. He told us that he was aware of what had happened and that he was going to call his sources at the Italian embassy. In the following conversation he assured us that The detainee was Berto Savina And what was being attended for “a department of the Ministry of Interior that deals with the VIP.”
Given our disbelief and our insistence, this source promised to make a new round of investigation in its surroundings and asked us to call it later, what we did. He confirmed his version again.
We decided to find out if Berto Savina had appeared in his store, Casalinda, since the day of the outrage, on August 25. A reporter appeared in the business and asked several employees. They told him they hadn’t seen him since then.
All these elements led us to publish the information that is now in question.
After talking with Berto Savina himself and his son, Gianluca, who contacted us after the publication of our article, we did not rule out that our Italian source could have been put at the State Security service in an operation to disqualify us.
This would indicate how far the tentacles of the Political Police extend, whose only task is to ensure, at any price, the survival of an exhausted regime.
However, we assume all the responsibility for what happened and regret the damage to third parties that we cause with this error. We apologize to our readers and Savina’s family.
In that extremely hostile context we had made all possible verifications. Now we see that it was not enough and that we should not trust a seemingly friendly source.
Throughout his 11 years of life, 14ymedio He has demonstrated his fissure commitment to rigorous journalism and with the truth. And recognizing our mistake in this case is the best proof of this.
