Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, a Havana-based independent journalist, sent an e-mail message this morning to his "brothers, colleagues, and organizations that protect and watch over press freedom around the world" announcing that he had been released from police custody after a four-day detention. In his e-mail, titled "Thanks to you and to your demands, I am at it again," Guerra Pérez detailed the ordeals of his arrest.
The journalist said he was taken into custody during a "massive
police operation" on the afternoon of March 4, as neighbors stood by watching. Two
agents of
Soon after his arrival, Guerra Pérez was transferred to a
second police station in
Agents interrogated Guerra Pérez eight times over the course of four days, he said, with each interrogation lasting between one and a half and three hours. Interrogators asked Guerra Pérez again and again to name the people responsible for the posters. "I told them that I did receive a lot of information about the posters which had been hung up [...] but that because of my ethics I could not tell them who the guilty person or who my sources were, even if I did know," Guerra Pérez wrote.
The journalist was released at 6 p.m. on Wednesday. From his e-mail, it is not clear whether authorities pressed charges. He did, however, highlight that prison authorities denied him medication for pulmonary emphysema, hypertension, and severe skin allergies.
Minutes after sending his e-mail, Guerra Pérez sent a second
message with three stories attached that detailed police repression during
different dissident activities in
The journalist's wife told CPJ earlier this week that in 2008, her husband was detained and released 50 times, and warned repeatedly that he must stop working as an independent journalist. Other Havana-based journalists and human rights advocates said short detentions have become a common means of intimidating dissidents and independent journalists.
Twenty-one
independent reporters and editors are currently jailed in
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