MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IAPA condemns journalist's arrest by Cuba's regime

Cuban journalist Claudia Montero has been placed under preventive house arrest

The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) Wednesday expressed its support for Cuban journalist Claudia Montero, who has been accused by the Government of President Miguel Díaz-Canel of causing “public disorder.”

Montero, who contributes from from Cuba to the Miami-based CubaNet website, has been placed under preventive house arrest and banned from leaving the country, in “another act of repression by the regime against communicators who exercise their freedom to inform,” according to a statement from the IAPA.

Montero's partner, activist Fabio Corchado Borroto, is also accused of the same offenses and also under house arrest.

“The officer who questioned her [Montero] on December 4 said that the accusation is based on the counterrevolutionary content of the videos that she sends to the independent media,” the IAPA details.

Montero, the statement added, considers that the harassment by the Cuban State could be in retaliation for taking journalist Camila Acosta into her home for months after she was evicted from the place where she lived.

Back then “we had police and SE surveillance,” said Montero, who along with her partner are considered persons of interest in the process against Acosta, accused of “instigation to commit a crime.”

“The regime continues to use judicial, legal and police persecution to harass and intimidate independent journalists,” IAPA Chairman Jorge Canahuati denounced in the statement.

“We have been observing it in an accentuated way since the protests of July 11, when many independent journalists were applied the same measures and were accused, with or without judicial support, of some crime,” Canahuati went on. Carlos Jornet, head of IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, insisted on the “urgency” of “coordinating actions to stop censorship and repression in Cuba.” Canahuati and Jornet also highlighted “the courage and commitment of independent Cuban journalists,” who “despite being persecuted, continue to report and exercise their right to freedom of expression.”