IAPA condemns brutal harassment of reporters and media in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua

The Inter-American Press Association (SIP) approved this Friday the resolutions of its 77th General Assembly on Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, in which it condemns “the police and judicial persecution” and the “imprisonment” of reporters, as well as the “excessive attacks” against freedom of the press and expression in these countries.

The balance of the year since the previous general assembly, also held virtually due to the pandemic, shows a serious and constant deterioration: especially in Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, where the political power has hardened its attacks against civil society and freedom of the press and redoubled its “attacks” and “intimidation” of journalists.

These three nations account for the highest number of physical attacks and harassment of journalists and violations of freedom of the press and expression in the American continent, it is stated in the resolutions.

Climate of impunity and repression in Nicaragua

In the case of Nicaragua, the IAPA resolves to condemn the Government of Daniel Ortega for its “excessive attacks against Nicaraguan civil society” and freedom of the press.

In the resolution on Nicaragua, the general assembly demands the immediate return to its owners of the facilities of the newspaper La Prensa, the oldest in the country, “unjustly intervened and looted by the Police,” as well as the release of Juan Lorenzo Holmann, manager general of the rotary.

The IAPA also demands from the Ortega government the “immediate freedom of political prisoners and that the regime allow free and transparent elections”, instead of fostering a “climate of repression, impunity and injustice” with a view to the elections of next October 7. November.

Cuba, the police and judicial persecution that does not stop

As for Cuba, the resolution condemns the imprisonment of reporters Lázaro Yuri Valle and Esteban Rodríguez, and that of youtuber Yoandi Montiel, and calls for the immediate release of all three.

It also demands that the Cuban regime annul the judicial proceedings against the independent Cuban journalists Mary Karla Ares (of Amanecer Habanero) and Camila Acosta, this second correspondent for the Spanish newspaper ABC on the island.

In the same resolution, it demands that the Government “cease the police and judicial persecution” against independent journalists and the practice of forcing them into “exile”, and that the “repression on social networks against those who exercise their right to criticism ends and dissent ”.

Finally, it alerts the hemispheric press and international organizations about the “new wave of repression” that the Cuban government has unleashed against the organizers of a social protest called for next November 15.

He considers that the island’s regime “violates all the precepts established in the Declaration of Chapultepec (which measures the state of press freedom in 22 American countries) and of Salta more than 60 years ago.

Another repressive turn of the screw in Venezuela

As for Venezuela, the hemispheric body demands that the Nicolás Maduro regime “respect the independent Venezuelan press” and “end the attacks and harassment” against the media and journalists.

He then condemns the use made by the Venezuelan Government of the “judicial apparatus” and the Armed Forces to “attack the media,” and asks that the facilities of the newspaper El Nacional, “unjustly intervened”, be restored to their owners.

It concludes its resolution on Venezuela by rejecting the Government’s plans to “impose a communicational hegemony” in which the task of reporting is only viable for the official media, “to the detriment of the right to citizen information.”