SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- State Security in Camagüey summoned the independent journalist and collaborator of CubaNet José Luis Tan Estrada for an alleged interview at the police station.
Under the threat to go look for him in a patrol car and arrest him for disobedience if he does not appear at the Third Station of the PNR in Camagüey, the political police have demanded that Tan appear at 1:30 pm, this Wednesday, October 9, to be interrogated .
The order comes amid a repressive wave against the independent press in Cuba which has reached several journalists and community media.
Tan Estrada, a critical voice of the Cuban regime and defender of human rights on the Island, has been summoned, interrogated and detained on a recurring basis. The reporter has promoted humanitarian work to help those who need it most that transcends his journalistic activity.
From collecting coats for people in need during the past winter to bringing diapers and insulin to unattended patients have been some of their activities in the last year.
In the context of the entry in force of the Social Communication Law, which has been criticized as a new instrument by the Cuban authorities to limit freedom of expression and access to information, several journalists from CubaNet, Neighborhood Journalism and The Touch They were threatened, interrogated, forced to resign from their work and return sums of money supposedly received from training programs or collaborations with international media.
In addition to the extortion economic situation, State Security has forced the interrogated journalists to sign surrender certificates, in which they acknowledge having received funds from “subversive” projects, thus fabricating evidence against them. In some cases, they are forced to publicly renounce continuing to practice independent journalism and to record their confessions on video, according to the victims, according to an editorial published by The Touch last friday.
This modus operandi It seeks to discredit journalists and independent entities, and prepares the ground for a possible criminal investigation against them. It is feared that the videos obtained during the interrogations will be used in television programs to discredit the victims, following the pattern of media harassment that has been used in the past.
