CUBA NEWS
November 3, 2003

Independent journalist arrested in the centre of the country 1n3e1g

Reporters Without Borders, 31 October 2003.

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrest of independent journalist Abel Escobar Ramrez on 29 October near Morn (350 km east of Havana) and called for his immediate release. The organization also called for the return of documents confiscated from the home of another journalist in the same region during a search carried out the same day.

A correspondent for the independent news agency Cuba Press in the centre of Cuba, Escobar Ramrez was detained by of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) on the road between his village, Patria, and the town of Morn. He had been heading towards the home of Jess Alvarez Castillo, another independent journalist working for Cuba Press.

He was taken to the regional headquarters of the Department of State Security (DSE), the political police, in the town of Ciego de Avila (south of Morn). The authorities asked his wife, Alina Torres Martinez, to bring some of his personal effects to him there. Alvarez Castillo said this request has made the family fear that he could be held for a long time. His family and friends have had no word of him since his arrest.

Three hours after the detention of Escobar Ramrez, DSE agents searched Alvarez Castillo's home in Morn. More than 300 of his books and magazines were seized. He said the search was linked to his work as a journalist. He was detained by the DSE for two hours on 19 September while in Las Tunas province. Alvarez Castillo is also the Ciego de vila representative of the Manuel Mrquez Sterling Association of independent journalists, which publishes the banned magazine De Cuba.

Cuba is now the world's biggest prison for journalists, with a total of 30 detained. Twenty-six of them were arrested along with some 50 other dissidents during an unprecedented crackdown in March. They were given prison sentences ranging from 14 to 27 years, in most cases for "threat to the state's unity and independence." Three of them, held in the eastern province of Holgun, are currently staging a hunger strike in protest against prison conditions. They are Ivn Hernndez Carrillo, Adolfo Fernndez Sainz and Mario Enrique Mayo Hernndez.

Cuba was second from last, ahead only of North Korea, in a ranking of 166 countries according to press freedom, which Reporters Without Borders published on 20 October.

Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world, as well as the right to inform the public and to be informed, in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reporters Without Borders has nine national sections (in Austria, Belgium, , , Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), representatives in Abidjan, Bangkok, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and Washington and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide.



PRINTER FRIENDLY

News from Cuba
by e-mail



PRENSAS
Independiente
Internacional
Gubernamental
IDIOMAS
Ingls
Francs
Espaol
SOCIEDAD CIVIL
Cooperativas Agrcolas
Movimiento Sindical
Bibliotecas
DEL LECTOR
Cartas
Opinin
BUSQUEDAS
Archivos
Documentos
Enlaces
CULTURA
Artes Plsticas
El Nio del Pfano
Octavillas sobre La Habana
Fotos de Cuba
CUBANET
Semanario
Quines Somos
Informe Anual
Correo Elctronico

DONATIONS

In Association with Amazon.com
Search:

Keywords:

CUBANET
145 Madeira Ave, Suite 207
Coral Gables, FL 33134
(305) 774-1887

Journalists
Editors