Cuban journalist gets 4 years in prison (UPDATED x 2)

Raimundo Perdigón was released from prison Nov. 24, 2010, after completing his sentence.

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There are no more sadder moments here at Uncommon Sense than when I have to add a name to the list of imprisoned journalists on the left-hand side of the page.

Today is one of those days, as I add the name of Raimundo Perdigón Brito.

A court in Sancti Spiritus on Monday convicted Perdigón of being a "pre-criminal social danger," and sentenced him to four years in prison, according to a story by Tania Maceda Guerra and posted at Payo Libre.

His true crime, at least according to the Castro regime, is that he is an independent journalist who has refused to quit his work.

Just last week, Perdigón, his sister Ana Margarita Perdigón and a few other journalists launched the Yayabo Press news agency.

At the time, I warned that these journalists might have days like this.

The journalists of Yayabo Press are not naive about the risks they are taking. For instance, Ana Margarita Perdigón, who also is an independent librarian, was detained, along with her father, when they tried to attend in Havana a meeting of the November 30 Democratic Party.

And they are well aware of their colleagues serving long prison terms in Castro's gulag.

Here's guessing the journalists of the new Yayabo Press will soon get the attention of the regime.

And here's guessing the dictatorship will again fail to silence the work of my brave fellow journalists, and my brave fellow Cubans.

For more on Raimundo Perdigón, visit the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Meanwhile, the goon squad put another squeeze on another journalist, Mario Echeverría Driggs.

UPDATED, 12:11 p.m. EST

Reporters Without Borders has more on Perdigón and journalist Ahmed Rodríguez Albacia, who was arrested on Monday. A source tells RSF that Perdigón was arrested Nov. 29 and warned to quit working as a journalist.