MIAMI, United States. — Marco Papacci, president of the National Association of Friendship Italy-Cubaattacked this Tuesday the journalist from CubaNet Marinellys Tremamunno while she was doing a live broadcast in front of a building where Mariela Castro was in Rome.
The sympathizer of the Cuban regime went to where the reporter was and tried to take her phone, a method widely used by repressors and officials at the service of the dictatorship. Tremamunno, however, did not allow Papacci to take the device from him and requested immediate help from the police.
“I have just been assaulted. The police, please. The man attacked me, he tried to take my phone away, ”said the reporter to one of the security agents present at the scene, who intervened on her behalf.
The journalist quickly identified Papacci as president of the Italy-Cuba National Friendship Association, “which is the one that organizes all the events of the (Cuban) Embassy here in Italy.”
“It is the same association that also made arrangements for the Cuban doctors to come during the pandemic. Let’s say it’s like the executing arm of the Embassy,” Tremamunno confirmed to CubaNet.
In front of the building where Mariela Castro was, who was taking part in an event, a large security operation was deployed.
It should be noted that during the reporter’s broadcast, a Cuban who protested the presence of Raúl Castro’s daughter in the Italian capital was arrested.
Marco Papacci, an Italian stalwart of the dictatorship
In the case of Marco Papacci, it is a former Greco-Roman style wrestling athlete who has been several times in Cuba.
As a result of his last visit to the island, the official newspaper Granmaofficial organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), defined Papacci as “an unconditional Italian with Cuba.”
The pro-Castro activist took the opportunity to meet with the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel.
“He gave me his full attention and made me remember, through his kindness and affection, the exchange with Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, in 1996,” Papacci declared about his meeting with the president.
