An independent journalist arrested for a few hours released in Cuba

The Cuban journalist Hector Luis Valdes, an employee of the independent newspaper ADN, was released this Wednesday hours after being arrested in Havana by state security agents, that media reported.

The ADN newspaper thus confirmed the complaint that his partner, the LGBTIQ activist and director of the Afro-Cuban Alliance Raúl Soublett, had made through social networks.

According to Soublett, Valdés was intercepted in the capital’s municipality of San Miguel del Padrón by “Major Dominic,” the agent who had already interrogated the journalist on previous occasions.

“Dominic takes me,” said the last message that Valdés sent to Soublett, at 8.30 local time (13.30 GMT) and that he uploaded to social networks providing a screenshot of his mobile phone.

Hours later, Soublett confirmed the journalist’s release on the social network Facebook: “Héctor Luis Valdés is already at home! Thanks for worrying”.

According to ADN, Valdés was going to the home of the mother of the also independent journalist Esteban Rodríguez, to pick her up and go together to the Combinado del Este penitentiary, where they had an appointment scheduled to visit this dissident.

Valdés, linked to the dissident artist group Movimiento San Isidro, has denounced having been forcibly detained in his home, detained and threatened with death on several occasions.

In recent weeks, several independent local journalists have denounced acts of harassment by the Cuban security forces, especially around the frustrated opposition protest of November 15.

Some were questioned, others denounced the interruption of their communications and some assured that they were prevented from leaving their homes to carry out their informative work.

Two days before November 15, the Cuban authorities withdrew the press credentials of the six journalists and graphic designers who work for the EFE Agency delegation in Cuba, in an unjustified and unprecedented action.

Two were restored the following day and the Cuban government promised to return two more “as of November 28,” as well as to grant the press visa for the new agency delegate in the country, requested in September.

The president of Efe, Gabriela Cañas, described these measures as “an alleged drop-off relief” and demanded the recovery of all the credentials of her staff in Havana.

The decisions of the Cuban authorities in recent months have decimated the team of the Efe delegation in Havana, where currently only two journalists can continue to carry out their work. Efe hopes to be able to recover its information capacity on the island in the coming days.