Intelligence Officers in Cuba Ratchet Up Harassment of Christian Journalist 1

Officials increase threats in interrogations of Yoe Suárez

Independent Cuban journalist Yoe Suárez. (Courtesy of Yoe Suárez)

MIAMI (Morning Star News) – Intelligence officials in Cuba have increased harassment of an independent journalist, summoning the Christian and his mother twice in the past two weeks to threaten harsh consequences if he continues reporting on human rights issues, sources said.

As part of his Christian calling, Yoe Suárez has reported for non-state media outlets in Cuba since 2014 about human rights and freedom of religion issues, including the imprisonment of husband-and-wife pastoral team Ramón Rigal and Adya Expósito. They were imprisoned in April 2019 for homeschooling their children.

Following a series of interrogations and threats by Cuba’s Department of State Security (DSE, the island domestic intelligence branch) over the past year, an intelligence official identifying himself as a second-in-command-for-the-press summoned Suárez and his mother on April 3 to the Siboney Police Station, Playa municipality in Havana, according to Suárez.

The official, who identified himself as “Captain Jorge,” issued a series of implied threats to Suárez’s mother about consequences her 29-year-old son would suffer if he continued working as a reporter outside of Cuban intelligence controls, Suárez said.

“He told us, ‘You don´t know what a dungeon is, or what it is to have a patrol in front of your house,’” Suárez told Morning Star News.

Suárez added that the official said, “The Office of the Prosecutor and Minors can intervene,” suggesting they could take him into custody and also take custody of Suárez’s less than 2-year-old son. Cuban civil law’s Family Code states that “both parents, or one of them, will lose custody over their children when they are convicted as a sanction for a final sentence issued in criminal proceedings.”

“This time they were much less kind than the last,” Suárez told Morning Star News. “He mentioned to me an article of the penal code under which I qualified for the crime of mercenarism.”

Article continues here: Cuban Intelligence Targets Journalist 

 

Failed Cuban Spy Promoted to Deputy Director of Nationwide Snitch Program 1

Wife and husband (as well as former spies) Adriana Perez and Gerardo Hernandez

From Radio Havana Cuba:

Gerardo Hernandez Promoted to Deputy National Coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution

Havana, April 8 (RHC)– Gerardo Hernández, Hero of the Republic of Cuba and one of the Five Cuban anti-terrorists who were imprisoned in the United States, was promoted to Deputy National Coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), a mass organization that brings together an enormous percentage of the island’s population.

The announcement was made on the CDR’s Facebook page, where they wished success to the Cuban hero and deputy to the National Assembly of the People’s Power.

Hernandez was until now the vice-rector of the Raúl Roa García Institute of International Relations. The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution were founded by the leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, on September 28, 1960. [edited for RHC by Jorge Ruiz Miyares].

Editor’s Note: Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, alias “Manuel Viramontes,” was arrested for espionage as a leader in the 40+ member spy ring known as the Wasp Network. Publically, he was lauded by the Cuban government for going to jail rather than accepting a plea agreement. In reality, however, Havana has always treated its jailed spies as “tainted” and therefore untrustworthy upon release. We hope he enjoys his irrelevant job overseeing his nation’s neighborhood snitch program. Community-based CDRs are low-level surveillance forces subordinate to the National CDR, which is a component of the National Revolutionary Police.

AMLO Plays With Fire – Jorge Castañeda, Former Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2

Jorge G. Castaneda (Photo by Bel Pedrosa)

By Yucatan Times

MEXICO (Agencies) – The former head of Mexico’s Foreign Affairs, Jorge Castañeda, questioned the presidential consideration of bringing in medical personnel from Cuba, the Caribbean nation presided over by Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Derived from the world crisis of coronavirus, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he is considering bringing Cuban doctors specialized in intensive care to Mexico. This statement, which opens the door for foreign medical personnel to cover faculties of the Mexican State, has been severely criticized by many in Mexico, amongst those: Jorge Castañeda Gutman, former head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), during Vicente Fox presidency.

“In honor of the truth, (López Obrador) did not say that he would do it, but he did say that he would consider it, (which) is very questionable from various points of view,” the Princeton University graduate began his analysis for the Latinus media.

Latinus is a new media outlet founded in the United States whose purpose is to reach Latin American audiences in that country. The recent creation of this platform is due to the broad demographic that Latinos represent in the 52 states of the United States. Currently, Latinos are the first minority in the United States, and Spanish is the second most spoken language in that country.

The first observation Castañeda makes is that in Mexico, what is lacking are job openings for doctors, not physicians. In other words, the service that Cuba could offer is unnecessary for the country, since the lack of health personnel is not necessarily a conflict for Mexico; “perhaps there is a problem with some young doctors who do not necessarily want to go to the areas of the country where they are most needed, but in their social service they do so a lot and have been doing so for many years.”

A second reflection is regarding the conditions in which Cuban doctors work abroad. “From Angola in the 1970s to Italy in 2020, the Cuban government charges a fortune in salary -to the government of each country- for each doctor that goes, but the doctor only receives a tiny fraction of that amount. Most of the money is kept in Cuba so that the health professional does not abandon the task and go to the United States.”

Feature continues here: Cuba’s Spy-Doctors