Keeping track of the latest dirty tricks unleashed by the communists against Cuba's independent press can be exhausting. Translating the accounts from Spanish to English and determining whether a report is credible is time-consuming. And sometimes, there are so many reports, I sometimes wonder whether it makes a difference anyway.
I long ago determined that it does.
These are my fellow journalists and my fellow Cubans. They need me to keep going, to tell their stories, so I keep going. Me getting a little tired is nothing compared to what they face each day, knowing that the story they write may be all the excuse the police need to throw them in jail.
Screw you, Fidel Castro, you won't silence me.
The latest example of Cuban police harassment of an independent journalist comes via Misceláneas de Cuba.
Journalist Carlos Serpa Maceira reports that two police officers last week planted themselves in front apartment building where his colleague Victor Manuel Domínguez García lives. Authorities also cut off Domínguez's telephone service — which he uses to transmit his stories — even though he was up to date on his bill.
Journalists in the United States are some of the biggest complainers I know, griping about the slightest inconveniences. Slow Internet connections. Uncomfortable chairs. Short lunch breaks.
However, those whines are impossible to take seriously when compared to the hardships and harassments suffered by our colleagues in Cuba.
Sign petition for release of Cuban political prisoners
