Christian journalist harassed by Cuban domestic intelligence
Intelligence officials in Cuba have increased their harassment of an independent journalist, summoning him and his mother twice in the past fortnight and threatening harsh consequences if he continued reporting on human rights issues, Morning Star News, a persecution watchdog said.
According to Morning Star News, 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. Both 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 domestic intelligence branch) over the past year, an official, identifying himself as the second-in-command-for-the-press, summoned Suárez and his mother on the 3rd of April to the Siboney Police Station of the Playa municipality in Havana, according to Suárez.
The official told him that he shouldn’t underestimate the DSE. Adding another level of pressure, “he told me that he had many contacts and that through them he could spread the word that I was a State Security agent, to discredit me,” Suárez recalled.
Cuban intelligence has a historical precedent of accusing Christians of being CIA agents on pretexts ranging from receiving a Christmas card from abroad to receiving offerings from Christians in foreign currency.
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