Cuban journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias began a hunger strike on March 6 to demand his immediate release.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC in Spanish) guerrillas postponed the Thursday, Feb. 14 release of two kidnapped police officers in the country, alleging persecution from the media, reported the newspaper El Colombiano. The ICRC delegate for southwestern Colombia, Angela Bertini, reported the news, according to the publication.
Cuban news agency Hablemos Press reported the arrest of independent journalist Héctor Julio Cedeño on Feb. 5, for allegedly attacking a police officer in Havana, the capital.
The Internal Affairs Office of the Colombian police accused an officer of involuntary manslaughter for the death of journalist Guillermo Quiroz Delgado, reported the newspaper El Universal. The disciplinary hearing of officer Jorge David Pérez took place on Monday, Feb. 4, at the Sucre department police headquarters, the newspaper added.
After seven months of investigation, police in the Brazilian state of Goiás are closer to solving the killing of sports commentator Valério de Oliveira. Last Friday, Feb. 1, police arrested three suspects for the crime, reported the newspaper Diário da Manhã. The following day, the former deputy chairman of the Goiás Atheletic Club Maurício Sampaio was also arrested for alledgedly ordering the killing.
Military police arrested a suspect on Tuesday, Jan. 15, for the killing of radio manager Renato Machado in São João da Barra, in the northern part of the state of Rio de Janeiro, reported G1.
The jailed Cuban journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez reported he has suffered from a series of high fevers since Jan. 2 and hasn't received medical attention as of Jan. 5, according to the news agency Hablemos Press, for which Martínez works.
The anti-censorship website from Reporters Without Borders, We Fight Censorship, recently highlighted the case of Cuban journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, who was jailed in September, 2012, by authorities after he published a series of articles about a health crisis on the island. The website published the articles that led to his arrest and two telephone conversations offering a rare look into the prison's harsh conditions from the inside.
A Cuban journalist in prison is the only one from Latin America that appears in the Committee to Protect Journalists' list of journalists incarcerated in 2012. However, the list does not include another Cuban journalist who was sentenced to 14 years in prison on espionage charges.
An Ecuadorian blogger was arrested after using President Rafael Correa's information to demonstrate the vulnerability of the government's system on Friday, Nov. 30, reported the newspaper El Universo. Paul Moreno was arrested in the city of Riobamba on the orders of the National Directory of Registration and Public Data (DINARDAP in Spanish), which accused him of hacking into the system.