Beaten by police during interrogation, then released without explanation or apologies - that’s how Juan Manuel Moreno Borrego described one of several run-ins he has had with Cuban authorities after trying to meet opposition activists.
Moreno, 55, said arbitrary arrests of journalists like him are a favored strategy of the communist government to smother any resistance to the authorities.
Moreno works for Amanecer Habanero, a community news outlet that is not aligned with the Cuban government. Based in Havana, he said Cuba’s security forces have arrested him “dozens of times” over the years.
The journalist spoke with VOA days after Cuban authorities arrested Oscar Elias Biscet, a contributor to Radio Marti.
Biscet was briefly detained without explanation on January 9 as he left his Havana home, according to a statement from the U.S. Agency for Global Media, or USAGM. He was later released.
Like VOA, Radio Marti is funded by the U.S. Congress and overseen by the USAGM, but is editorially independent.
Biscet’s brief arrest came close to the annual meeting of the Emilia Project, an organization that he founded to promote human rights and democracy in Cuba.
Cuban authorities arrested Biscet the same time last year, again just before the Emilia Project meeting, according to a statement by USAGM.
Moreno told VOA that detaining people before an event or protest is a tactic that Cuban authorities use regularly.
“When I have been going to attend a meeting in a foreign embassy or a meeting with activists, I have been held without explanation, or charges or apologies,” he said in a telephone conversation from Havana.
“One time they left me on a motorway outside Havana without any money.
“Typically, they hold you for a day, so you miss the meeting. It is a deliberate tactic to stop journalists or activists from being able to operate.”
Neither the Cuban Embassy in Madrid nor the government's International Press Center in Havana responded to VOA’s emails requesting comment.
Maintaining 'terror'
Prisoners Defenders International, a Madrid-based human rights group, said the Cuban government uses the arrests of journalists or opposition activists to “maintain terror over the freedom of expression.”
Harassment of journalists is getting worse “every week,” the organization said in a statement.
Moreno recalled one occasion in 2018 when he was attending a meeting with activists in Cienfuegos, a city in central Cuba.
“I was arrested and taken by the state security forces to a police station. Four agents hit me in the face and stomach while I was being interrogated,” he said.
“They then drove me about 250 kilometers (155.3 miles) to Havana and put me in a patrol car and took me to my house. No charges, no explanation and no apology.”
In 2021, Moreno said, he and his wife were put under effective house arrest over his reporting on demonstrations against the government.
Hundreds of Cubans remain in prison after anti-government protests in July 2021, the largest since former leader Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.
Cuba’s government has said those in jail are guilty of assault, vandalism and sedition.
Rights groups, the European Union and the United States all condemned Cuba’s response to the protests as repressive.
Camila Acosta, who works for the Spanish newspaper ABC and the news website Cubanet, was held under house arrest for 10 months after reporting on the 2021 demonstrations.
In 2022, officials convicted her of disorder and instigating crime — charges she denied. She was fined 1,000 Cuban pesos, which she said at the time equated to about $10. The average monthly salary in Cuba is about $8.
Acosta was detained briefly again last June.
“I had people watching outside my house. I was arrested for about eight hours. I don’t know why. They broke my camera and telephone just to bother me,” she told VOA.
“What happened to Biscet is occurring a lot," she said, "In general, they do this to stop the media from reporting certain events, and in the case of activists, they try to stop them from taking part in their activities. It is to try to halt any citizens’ initiative.”
In a statement issued while Biscet was still detained, Sylvia Rosabal, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio Marti, called the arrest “an obvious attempt to silence the pursuit of human rights in Cuba.”
“This violation by Cuban officials should be considered yet another warning to anyone who dares to express concern about the rights of all people,” she added.
A U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree, Biscet is known for his human rights coverage.
The journalist and pro-democracy activist has been jailed previously. After being sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of working for the U.S. to subvert the Cuban government, he spent nearly a decade in prison before international pressure led to his release in 2011.
His latest arrest coincided with the 11th anniversary of the Emilia Project.
Despite the risk of imprisonment, Biscet has refused to leave Cuba.
Getting worse
Javier Larrondo Calafat, president of Prisoners Defenders International, told VOA that harassment of journalists is getting worse.
“Maintaining terror over freedom of expression, the basis of the power of the Cuban regime, can only be achieved by carrying out repressive actions against opinion leaders, journalists, artists and various high-profile sectors [of the opposition],” he said.
“In totalitarian regimes, independent journalism is more influential in society. The danger for journalists is greater. Harassment against independent journalists grows with each passing week.”
A report by the group, published January 11, found the number of political prisoners in Cuba in 2023 was 1,063, an increase of 194 from 2022.
Cuba also ranks 172nd out of 180 nations in the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 reflects the best media environment.
