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Cuban customs agents seize Venezuelan newspaper critical of Chávez and Castro

An anarchist collective claimed that Cuban customs officials confiscated a mail package containing samples of a Venezuelan newspaper, according to the website Havana Times.

The Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop denounced the seizure of a DHL mail package with the most recent edition of the newspaper El Libertario. Cuban authorities said they "found 17 newspapers with content that went against the general interests of the nation," according to the collective on Observatorio Crítico Desde Cuba.

According to the collective, the copies were from the December 2012-January 2013 edition, which contained critical editorials against the administration of President Hugo Chávez and the Cuban and Chinese governments. The group called the confiscation an act against the "free movement of ideas and information."

In 2012, Cuba appeared on the Committee to Protect Journalists list of the 10 countries with the highest levels of press censorship.

Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.