Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias
Journalist/human rights activist Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias has been jailed since April 23, and his colleagues are worried the Castro dictatorship is preparing to falsely charge him with "contempt" of police officers, according to the CIHPRESS independent news agency.
Martínez was arrested while covering a gathering of government opponents in the Marianao neighborhood of Havana, said Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, chief of CIHPRESS. Despite the possibility of the false charges, Guerra said there are eight witnesses that can testify to what really happened when Martínez was arrested.
Guerra implored Reporters Without Borders and other international journalism groups and foreign governments to demand Martínez's release.
"Calixto Ramón has suffered dozens of arrests, three deportations to the city of Camagüey and beaten for reporting facts that the press does not release official," the CIHPRESS report states.
The dictatorship recently has stepped up its targeting of independent journalists, who by the very nature of their work — reporting about the reality of Cuba today — are very dangerous to the regime. Just last week, journalist/blogger Dania Virgen García was sentenced to 20 months in prison, and as RSF notes, another CIHPRESS correspondent, Magaly Norvis Otero Suárez, has also been targeted by police.
So does Punt de Vista.
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