Cuba: Journalist Luz Escobar continuously impeded from leaving her home

Photo credit: El Estornudo

Havana, December 11, 2020 - Luz Escobar, a Cuban journalist working for the independent news website 14yMedio, has been repeatedly banned from leaving her house by security agents. Such unacceptable behaviour not only impedes her work but also interferes with her daily life. The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) is utterly dismayed with the way journalists are regularly mistreated in Cuba. We call on the Cuban law enforcement to cease their unjustified actions that clearly violate human rights.

Luz Escobar, a Havana-based journalist working for independent media outlet 14yMedio, experiences something that she once described as random house arrest. On December 10, which – ironically – also marks as Human Rights Day, Luz was, once again, prohibited from leaving her house. She detailed the course of the conversation in a Twitter post:

“December 10 was the seventh consecutive day that State Security and the police arrived at my building to prevent me from leaving the house. This time I encountered two women in civilian clothes.

-Luzbely, where do you think you're going?

-On the street, what happened?

-You know that you can't go out today

-I do not know anything

-Well, you can’t leave today”.

In another tweet from December 6, she wrote: this is the third day in a row that State Security prevents me from leaving my house. Yesterday there were five of them, today only one came. He is hiding in the basement of my building. I recognize this man. He was also here on November 25, telling me I couldn’t go out. I got his pictures from my neighbors.

Luz Escobar encountered similar harassment last year. In November 2019, she tweeted on several days that security agents wouldn’t allow her to leave her house without their accompaniment. Back then, she spoke to CPJ and stressed that the main goal of the authorities is to prevent journalists from working on certain days. Specifically, days that the state expects greater mobilization of people in the country, such as significant anniversaries or protests. Luz was also prevented from leaving the house in July, whereas in May she was briefly detained.

In the last days, the journalist of 14yMedio published several videos and photos which capture the moments she was stopped from leaving her building by law enforcement officers. Luz Escobar is not the only social activist who has been consistently intimidated by the authorities. Journalist and writer Carlos M. Álvarez, was briefly detained when he decided to leave his home after 17 days of house arrest. “We have to demand our basic rights. We cannot allow ourselves to be trampled on with impunity”, he wrote on Twitter after his release.

CFWIJ spoke to Luz about the whole situation. The journalist was under constant surveillance for 7 days: from December 4 till December 11 when she could finally leave her house. However, Luz is sure that it was not the last time the authorities tried to intimidate her. “I feel bad. Such actions make you feel powerless. This whole atmosphere is suffocating and daunting. Additionally, some of my friends like Tania Bruguera or Katherine Bisquet are still under surveillance. Luz emphasizes that even though the situation with civil rights in Cuba is far from perfect, now it is even deteriorating. “Intimidation journalists is the first thing that happens when certain coverage is not written in the government’s favor. Since the state media outlets never go against the politicians, the whole pressure is put on independent reporters”, explains Luz.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) is deeply concerned by the growing deterioration of press freedom conditions in Cuba. In order for Cuba to uphold basic human rights and respect democratic values, measures must be taken to protect journalists and allow them to report freely. These harsh examples of harassment towards media workers and social activists can no longer be tolerated.