On 5 January Cuba’s representative to the United Nations (UN), Juan Antonio Quintanilla, rejected a tweet from UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor condemning the expulsion of two journalists from Cuba.
Analysis:
The ejection of two journalists – Esteban Rodríguez and Héctor Luis Valdés – is creating new problems for the Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) government which has faced continued international condemnation and sanctions over its crackdown on dissidents following the unprecedented July 2021 protests over economic, health and political grievances and ahead of planned protests for November 2021, which it thwarted.
- Quintanilla tweeted “she [Lawlor] doesn’t know Cuba; our citizens are not expelled from the country, nor persecuted” and went on to accuse her of replicating “anti-Cuban campaigns”.
- The two journalists, who work for ADN Cuba, an independent audio-visual media outlet, are both members of the Movimiento San Isidro (MSI) that comprises Cuban artists, journalists, and academics demanding freedom of expression.
- Valdés told the media that he and Rodríguez, who had been held in pre-trial detention for eight months, had fled Cuba on 4 January and arrived at El Salvador’s main airport with the intention of boarding a flight to Nicaragua, but were then told that the Nicaraguan authorities prohibited their entry. Yesterday El Salvador’s migration authority tweeted that the two had been admitted to El Salvador where they are receiving “humanitarian assistance while their migratory situation is resolved”.
- As well as the response from Lawlor, their situation drew attention from the US embassy in Havana which tweeted concern that they had been forced into exile, adding “This is another method of harassing journalists”. Yesterday José Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director at US-based NGO Human Rights Watch, asked the governments of the region to offer asylum to the two journalists, saying they had been persecuted and expelled by Cuba.
Looking Ahead: The renewed focus on press freedom in Cuba, which also drew concern following the approval of a new cybersecurity law in August, comes as the government is already under pressure over human rights; most recently on 1 January US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols called on the government to “immediately release all those convicted for peaceful protest” noting that over 600 political prisoners are still behind bars.