Morning Star News, April 10, 2020
Intelligence officials in Cuba have increased harassment of an independent journalist, summoning the Christian and his mother twice in the past two weeks for reporting on human rights issues.
Yoe Suárez has reported in Cuba since 2014 about human rights and freedom of religion issues, including the husband-and-wife team Ramón Rigal and Adya Expósito, imprisoned in 2019 for home-schooling their children.
An intelligence official identifying himself as “Captain Jorge,” summoned Suárez and his mother on April 3 to the Siboney Police Station in Havana and issued a series of implied threats to Suárez’s mother about consequences her 29-year-old son would suffer if he continued working as a reporter outside of Cuban intelligence controls.
“This time they were much less kind than the last,” Suárez said. “He mentioned that I qualified for the crime of mercenarism.” This crime calls for prison of 10 to 20 years, or death, for a Cuban citizen found guilty of it.
Suárez said the official told him he does not care if a journalist works for a non-state media outlet “as long as he does so under the control of the State Intelligence.’”
Suárez, a member of the Cuban Evangelical League, said authorities are targeting him not for anything specific but due to “a cluster of anger about my work.”