Reporta Cuba Contributor Threatened by Cuban Security Forces
MIAMI — Nilo Alejandro Gutiérrez, a citizen journalist for Radio/TV Martí’s Reporta Cuba (Cuba Reports), has reported receiving threats from Cuban State Security agents for his involvement in the project.
“I was told that my life and my family’s lives are at risk,” said Gutiérrez, a resident of Morón, in Cuba’s Ciego de Avila province. He added that Cuban authorities were monitoring his email and phone.
Gutiérrez contributed to stories on environmental issues, including contamination in the Morón canal.
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights assures individuals the right to receive and impart information freely,” said Carlos García-Pérez, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio and TV Martí. “Threatening a citizen for sharing information is not only an attack on him but an attack on the freedoms of all Cubans.”
Citizen journalists for Reporta Cuba have previously been targeted for their work. In July, several reporters were assaulted and had recording equipment and programming seized. Police interrogated, berated, and threatened Ridel Luis Brea under allegations that his cooperation with the Martís was to discredit the Cuban government. The parents of another Reporta Cuba collaborator, Juan Miguel Acosta Bermudez, received death threats in retaliation for their son’s sharing videos and images with the Martís.