Cuban regime arrested independent journalist Luz Escobar

From Florida, journalist Mario José Pentón made the first announcement on his Twitter account: "#Urgent: arrested my colleague @Luz_Cuba during his report in Havana. I hold the authorities accountable for their integrity. " It is the independent journalist Luz Escobar, a regular signature of the site 14yMedio, directed by Yoani Sánchez. Apparently, she was arrested before noon and, until now, does not answer calls or messages on her mobile phone.

Infobae tried to communicate with Escobar, via your WhatsApp account, as you have done on other occasions, but he could not find it in Cuba. His phone seemed to be disconnected and Maybe he was: he was in possession of the Santiago de las Vegas police station, in Havana, where the reporter was arrested.

"Unfortunately, we confirmed that our colleague Luz Escobar, reporter for 14yMedio, was Arrested and taken to the police station in Santiago de las Vegas, in Havana. One of the neighbors of refuge for victims where I collected testimonials He called our office to confirm it, "he wrote on his Facebook page Sánchez.

The blogger also tweeted: "Any physical damage, verbal threat or police action will result in an increase and improvement of journalism. Every minute that @Luz_Cuba pbades is interrupted, there will be more reports, articles, informative notes and chronicles of opinion published in @ 14ymedio ", and began broadcasting the hashtags # We are the light and # All we are light.

According to another colleague of Escobar, Cristian Cresposhe "It covered a story about people who were staying and warned that I could be arrested by the police". In his Twitter account, he explained: "Now the phone is not responding, wait @DiazCanelB, it's a problem with the mobile phone and it's not stopped for his work journalist ".

However, I was arrested for collecting testimonies from people living in a shelter for victims. "Several residents of the place went to the police unit to demand their release," Sánchez said. When he called the Santiago de las Vegas train station, the chief of the guard confirmed that Escobar was there "although he is not in a dungeon but is waiting for a specialist to come" to interrogate him.

The last social media activity of Escobar took place about four hours before noon in Havana. On April 30, the A reporter reported that a Cuban state security officer had knocked on his door to warn them that they were watching her.since the next day was the official act of International Workers' Day.

In an audio recording published by Escobar on the networks, a male voice is heard: "From tomorrow, you know that tomorrow is May 1, we are trying not to affect the square"

Over the hours, outrage and concern began to overwhelm the social networks of different accounts. Rosa Maria Paya, human rights defender and daughter of Oswaldo Payá, who died suddenly in 2012, added: "Luz Escobar was arrested while she was covering an article about hostels in Cuba. Dictators Raúl Castro and Diaz Canel hate free press and freedom of expression because their regime is incompatible with the truth. They are afraid of the truth. "