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Expelled
March
Roxana Valdivia, Bureau of Independent Press of Cuba (BPIC), THREATENED, EXPELLED, HARASSED
Valdivia, a BPIC reporter, was given a verbal ultimatum by Cuban authorities at the beginning of March warning that if she did not secure a visa to emigrate by the end of the month she would be incarcerated on charges of refusing to obey orders to stop her work as an independent journalist. On March 20, she was granted a visa by the U.S. government. During the three weeks Valdivia was seeking a visa, her phone lines were frequently cut, at one point for as long as a week. In October 1995, she was detained for one day by state security in Havana and then was forced to return to her home in Ciego de Avila. She remained under police surveillance and was not allowed to leave her province without securing official permission. In a March 12 letter to Cuban President Fidel Castro, CPJ condemned the harassment of Valdivia and urged Castro to allow independent journalists to operate freely without the threat of harassment and imprisonment. On June 4, Valdivia arrived in Miami with her family after being forced to emigrate. CPJ sent a letter to Cuban President Fidel Castro, protesting what it considers to be the defacto expulsion of independent journalists from Cuba.
June 19
Suzanne Bilello, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), HARASSED, EXPELLED
Bilello, CPJ's program coordinator for the Americas, was arrested at 10:30 p.m. in her room at the Hotel Nacional in Havana by two plainclothes Interior Ministry officials and a uniformed immigration officer. She was brought to the Interior Ministry, where she was interrogated for three hours about her activities in Cuba and her contacts with independent journalists in Havana. She was also questioned about the modest gifts she brought the journalists she met with, including pens, notebooks and medicines--all of which had been approved by Cuban Customs officials--and small advance payments from private sources to help underwrite news-gathering costs for the coming months. Bilello's interrogators seized her notebooks, personal papers, and other private documents, along with rolls of exposed film and other possessions. At 2 a.m. on June 20 she was informed that she was being expelled for "fomenting rebellion." She was then placed aboard a 7 a.m. flight to Cancun, Mexico. Bilello had traveled to Cuba from Mexico on June 16 on a tourist visa. During her four-day stay she met with reporters and editors of five newly established independent Cuban news agencies. In a June 20 press release, CPJ strongly protested "the unjustified seizure of Ms. Bilello's personal papers and other belongings as an unconscionable invasion of privacy, and as a violation of press freedom."
July 12
Jacques Perrot, Reporters Sans Frontieres, EXPELLED
Perrot, a journalist working in the Americas department of the French press freedom group Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), was denied entry to Cuba. When he arrived at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, a police officer told him he would have to return to France on the next available flight because his passport was allegedly not in order. Perrot, who had entered Cuba on a tourist visa issued in France, was escorted by police to a plane headed for Paris. According to a statement published by RSF, an agent of the Cuban Interior Ministry claimed that Perrot was an "undesirable" because of a previous trip he had made to Cuba. Perrot had visited Cuba with an RSF delegation from May 16 to May 20. The delegation met with independent journalists and provided them with funds to finance news reporting. Cuba's refusal to allow Perrot into the country came three weeks after CPJ staff expert Suzanne Bilello was expelled from Cuba. In a letter to President Fidel Castro, CPJ denounced the Cuban government's treatment of Perrot.
For more information contact americasweb@cpj.org