By Larisa Manescu
Update 10/18/2013: According to Reporters without Borders, all three journalists, along with Denis Noa Martinez and Pablo Morales Marchán (correspondents for Hablemos Press) who had been arrested Sunday, were released on Oct. 14.
Original: Three dissident journalists were arrested in Cuba within a 24-hour time span, informed Reporters WIthout Borders. Mario Echevarría, a correspondent for the website Misceláneas de Cuba, was arrested on Oct. 10 while he was covering a protest outside of the National Capitol Building in Havana.
The other two journalists were detained while going about their daily routines: David Águila Montero, the director of the Social Agency of Independent Journalists (ASPI), was arrested the morning of Oct. 11 when he left his house. William Cácer Díaz, a correspondent for the Center of Information Hablemos Press, was arrested by agents of the Department of State Security when he was leaving his office later that day.
The arrests have no direct association with one another.
Reporters without Borders has immediately called for the release of the journalists, reminding Cuban president Raúl Castro that he currently hold the rotating presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and must act to uphold civil liberties and human rights. CELAC was created in 2011 as an alternative to a more American-influenced regional bloc such as the Organization of American States (OAS), and it aims to create a regional dialogue and establish a greater integration between the 33 member states.
On Sept. 30, Cuba rejected several recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Council, including "guaranteeing freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, as well as the free activity of human rights defenders, independent journalists and those in opposition to the government” and "assuring that the defenders of human rights and independent journalists are not victims of intimidation, lawsuits or arbitrary detention.”
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.
