(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior General Abelardo Colome Ibarra, RSF protested the detention of Ricardo González Alfonso, independent journalist and RSF correspondent in Cuba. RSF asked the minister to “ensure that the relevant authorities punish the State Security Department (Departamento de la Seguridad del Estado, DSE) agents, who were responsible […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior General Abelardo Colome Ibarra, RSF protested the detention of Ricardo González Alfonso, independent journalist and RSF correspondent in Cuba. RSF asked the minister to “ensure that the relevant authorities punish the State Security Department (Departamento de la Seguridad del Estado, DSE) agents, who were responsible for this detention.”
According to the information collected by RSF, on 15 July 2000, González Alfonso was arrested by two DSE officers at his home in Havana. After showing him an official summons notice, the agents took the journalist to a house on the outskirts of the city, where they tried to convince him to cooperate with the DSE. After six hours of interrogation, the agents brought the journalist back to his home.
RSF noted that three journalists are currently imprisoned in Cuba. One of these, Bernardo Arevalo Padron, has been detained for almost three years for “insulting” President Fidel Castro and Vice-President Carlos Lage (see IFEX alerts of 11 April 2000, 10 December, 17 June and 2 March 1999, 29 April, 16 March, 20 and 9 February 1998 and others).
