Committee to
Protect Journalist. April 13, 2001.
New York, April 12, 2001 --- Cuban authorities placed local journalist
Ricardo González Alfonso under house arrest on April 9, according to the
local independent news agency CubaPress.
González Alfonso, 49, is the Cuba correspondent for the Paris-based
press freedom organization Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).
National Revolutionary Police (PNR) officers detained the journalist after
his former wife filed a complaint alleging that he had threatened her, CubaPress
reported. (Like many divorced couples in Cuba, where there is an acute housing
shortage, González Alfonso and his ex-wife share the same house.)
González Alfonso was arrested Monday afternoon and released at around
5 p.m. Apparently, the police only discovered that he was a journalist after he
was already in detention.
At 10 p.m., two police agents appeared at González Alfonso's home
with a house arrest warrant (that was missing the required signature and stamp.)
CubaPress reports that under Cuban law, house arrest can be imposed for up to 20
days, by which time the district attorney is required to rule on the matter.
It is highly unusual for Cuban police to impose house arrest in a domestic
dispute, CPJ sources say. And given that González Alfonso still lives
with his ex-wife, it is unclear why police would effectively lock them up
together in response to her complaint against him.
González Alfonso's affiliation with RSF has exposed him to repeated
harassment from Cuban authorities. In mid-February, the journalist was detained
for four hours and interrogated about interviews that he had given to a Miami
radio station, while his house was placed under police surveillance.
"CPJ is disturbed that our colleague Ricardo González Alfonso is
temporarily unable to carry out his vital work in support of press freedom in
Cuba," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "We call for his
immediate release from house arrest."
The latest incident follows recent meetings between Cuban independent
journalists and European parliamentarians to discuss press freedom issues during
the 105th Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference, held April 1-7 in Havana.
These meetings were nearly unprecedented in Cuba, where authorities try to
keep local independent journalists from having any meaningful contact with the
world outside Cuba.
During the meetings, CubaPress director Raúl Rivero and his
colleagues raised the issue of their jailed colleague Bernardo Arévalo
Padrón, who has been behind bars since October 1997. According to CPJ
research, Arévalo Padrón is the only journalist currently
imprisoned for his work anywhere in the Americas region. |