On 20 June 1996, Cuban Interior Ministry officials detained, interrogated, and deported from Cuba a visiting staff expert from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), accusing her of “fomenting rebellion” through its support for Cuba’s independent journalists. Suzanne Bilello, the CPJ’s Program Coordinator for the Americas, was arrested in her hotel room in Havana at […]
On 20 June 1996, Cuban Interior Ministry officials detained,
interrogated, and deported from Cuba a visiting staff expert from
the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), accusing her of
“fomenting rebellion” through its support for Cuba’s independent
journalists.
Suzanne Bilello, the CPJ’s Program Coordinator for the Americas,
was arrested in her hotel room in Havana at 10:30 pm on 19 June
by two plainclothes Interior Ministry officials and a uniformed
Immigration officer. She was brought for interrogation to
Interior Ministry offices in the Miramar district, where she was
questioned for three hours about her activities and contacts in
Havana.
Authorities also seized all of Bilello’s notebooks, personal
papers, and other private documents, along with rolls of exposed
film and other possessions. At 2:00 am, she was informed that she
was being expelled for “fomenting rebellion.” She was placed
aboard a 7:00 am flight to Cancun, Mexico, where she arrived on
the morning of 20 June. Bilello reported that she was neither
physically mistreated nor threatened.
Bilello, a journalist with extensive experience in Latin America,
had travelled to Cuba from Mexico on 16 June on a tourists visa
obtained from the Cuban Consulate in Mexico City. During her
four-day stay she met with reporters and editors of five newly
established independent Cuban news agencies. Founded by
journalists who were formerly employed by Cuban state media
outlets, the independent news agencies send reports about local
economic, social, and political issues to clients abroad.
As a gesture of collegial support, Bilello provided the
independent journalists with modest gifts from the CPJ of pens,
notebooks, and medicines that are scarce or prohibitively
expensive in Cuba. The importation of the gifts had been approved
by Cuban customs officials. She also gave the independent news
agencies small advance payments from private sources to help
underwrite their costs in the coming months. The Interior
Ministry officials questioned Bilello extensively about these
gifts and payments, alleging that they constituted support for
“rebellion” and “counter-revolutionary activities.”
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papers and other belongings as an invasion of privacy, and as a
violation of press freedom
was motivated by a desire to help and to meet personally many of
the independent Cuban journalists
Appeals To
His Excellency Fidel Castro
President
Havana, Cuba
c/o the Cuban Mission at the United Nations
New York NY 10016, United States
Fax: +1 212 779 1697
or c/o the Cuban diplomatic representative in your country
(in the United States)
Cuban Interest Section
Washington DC, United States
Fax: +1 202 797 8521
(in Canada)
Embassy of the Republic of Cuba
388 Main Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1S 1E3, Canada
Fax: +1 613 563 0068
Please copy appeals to the originator if possible.
