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State security agents arrest
21-year-old independent journalist in Havana
Reporters
Without Borders, 18 de septiembre de
2006.
Reporters Without Borders today condemned
the detention of Ahmed Rodríguez
Albacia, 21, a member of the independent
news agency Jóvenes sin Censura,
who was arrested by state security agents
without any grounds in Havana on 15 September.
"Rodríguez's detention raises
the possibility of new arrests without trial
like those of Oscar Mario González
Pérez and Roberto de Jesús
Guerra Pérez in July 2005 and Armando
Betancourt in May 2006," the press
freedom organisation said. "Rodríguez
and his family have been the target of constant
harassment in recent weeks and we call for
his immediate release."
Reporters Without Borders also pointed
out that Cuba took over the rotating presidency
of the Non-Aligned Movement at the end of
its six-day summit in Havana on 16 September
and as such undertook to ensure respect
for human rights and civil liberties in
member countries.
Rodríguez was arrested when he went
of his own volition to the police station
on Dragones street in central Havana, where
he lives. The arrest was made by two officials
from the Directorate for State Security
(the political police) who had followed
him there. His mother, Margarita Albacia,
said the head of the police refused to give
her any explanation or let her see him,
simply saying he was being questioned and
would be back home in a few days.
On the morning before his arrest, Rodríguez
had reported to the Cuban Human Rights Federation
(FCDH) that members of the Committees for
the Defence of the Revolution and the state
security's Rapid Response Brigades had surrounded
his house and had threatened to "smash
the heads" of him and his mother.
Rodríguez and his family were the
target of a similar operation organised
by state security, the CDR, the Federation
of Cuban Women and the Communist Party of
Cuba on 4 August, when a crowd of about
60 people blocked the entrance to their
home and warned that "counter-revolutionary"
meetings would no longer be tolerated there.
Rodríguez enraged the crowd by shouting,
"Long live human rights!"
Jóvenes sin Censura has been the
target of constant harassment since its
creation by a group of young journalists
in September 2005. Two state security officials
ordered the head of the agency, Liannis
Meriño Aguilera, 21, to put a stop
to her activities on 29 December in the
eastern city of Holguín.
The regime has not let up pressure on the
independent press and foreign journalists
ever since President Fidel Castro's hospitalisation
and the transfer of power to his brother
Raúl on 31 July. Some journalists
from Non-Aligned Movement member countries
were refused visas to come and cover the
Havana summit.
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