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FROM
CUBA
Czech model arrested for photographing the
poor
HAVANA, Cuba - February 1 (Jaime Leygonier
/ www.cubanet.org) - New York based Czech
fashion model Helena Houdova was arrested
in Havana January 23 after two local government
officials warned them not to photograph
poor children in the Havana district known
as la Guinera.
Houdova and another Czech tourist were
walking down a street taking pictures when
an official of the neighborhood Committee
for the Defense of the Revolution and another
from the Popular Power told them not to
photograph the children. The two officials
then followed the tourists and pointed them
out to a policeman, accusing them of taking
pictures for U. S. based TV Martí
and the counterrevolutionary press.
At the time, the two Czech women were walking
with two Cuban companions, Yusnaimi Jorge,
a human rights activist, and Vladimir Urrutia,
an AIDS victim who lives in the neighborhood
they were visiting.
The women said they were arrested before
3 p.m. and were not released until after
3 the next morning. During this time, they
said, they repeatedly asked to call their
embassy and were not allowed to do so.
Police, the women said, searched their
belongings and confiscated some photographs.
The women complained police wanted them
to sign a document they didn't understand
because it was in Spanish. Finally, they
said they signed another document nearing
3 a.m. so they would be released.
Upon their release, they said they were
told not to leave the city or go anywhere
to take pictures. On January 29 the women
were escorted by the Czech ambassador to
the airport and left the island.
Houdova was Miss Czech Republic in 1999.
Versión
original en español
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