Cuba journalist Carlos Serpa arrested, threatened with 'deportation'

Carlos Serpa Maceiera Carlos Serpa Maceiera is one of the workhorses of Cuban independent journalism, reporting tirelessly on the activities of Cubans opposed to the Castro dictatorship, and attempts by that dictatorship to stop them. Click on Miscelaneas De Cuba at any moment, and you are likely to find his reports on the latest protests or the realities of Cuban life.

Serpa is as powerful an example as those he writes about.

The dictatorship is very familiar with Serpa and his work, but despite its best efforts — arrests, detentions, fines, etc. — it has been unable to bounce him off his beat. But the dictatorship keeps trying, most recently earlier this week.

Independent journalist Ana Aguililla is reporting that the secret police on Monday arrested Serpa and detained him at a Havana police station, apparently to block him from a covering a "counter-revolutionary" protest lead by human rights activist Antúnez at the Colon Cemetery.

The cops kept Serpa locked in an office and warned him that if he persisted in reporting on opposition activities, he would be deported to his residence on the Isle of Youth Isle of Youth.

Catch. Threaten. Release. It's a story that Serpa and other Cuban independent journalists know too well.

(A post-script: Antúnez and six other activists also were arrested Monday.)