MIAMI, United States. – reporters from CubaNet Vladimir Turró Páez and Enrique Díaz Rodríguez were detained and interrogated by agents of the Political Police this Wednesday while they tried to carry out several interviews in the municipality of Mariano, as both journalists confirmed to this medium shortly after their release, around 1:30 p.m.
According to Turró Páez, at the time of the arrest both were at the intersection of 114th Avenue and 51st Street, in Marianao.
“At the moment when we were going to interview a person about the blackouts, a patrol car arrives and puts us in front of the motorcycle. The officers get out and ask us for identification. We gave them all the documents and the State Security officer appeared right there and told us that we had to follow the patrol to the Police station,” the reporters said.
“They took us to the Sixth Police Unit (Marianao). They kept us in an office from 9:00 in the morning until 12:00 noon, when the State Security officer appeared to repress us”, they also detailed.
Both reporters were threatened with jail if they did not give up their work as independent journalists or leave the country.
“They start asking us what we were doing interviewing that person, what the interview was about, what our plans were, if we had already thought about what they told us at the airport that we had to leave the country. Later [el oficial de la Seguridad del Estado] He said that if we continued doing this type of work – street interviews, independent journalism – they were going to confiscate our motorcycle.”
Political police threaten them again to leave Cuba
Likewise, the political police agent inquired about the plans of both reporters for May 30 and 31, when the regime intends to hold the trials against Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Osorbo.
“Later they said that what we were doing was a totally illegal activity. They said that because of the financing we received, we could face sentences of up to 10 years in prison under the new Penal Code,” they pointed out.
“They also warned us, once again, to leave the country because they were soon going to start implementing the new Penal Code against all independent journalists and opponents,” they concluded.
In mid-May, both journalists CubaNet They also denounced that State Security agents had interrogated and threatened them at the “José Martí” International Airport after their return to the Island, after participating in journalistic training in Sweden.
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