Lazaro Yuri Valle Roca Letter to Interamerican Press Association and Reporters Without Borders

Lazaro Yuri Valle Roca Letter to Interamerican Press Association and
Reporters Without Borders
Posted on July 7, 2015

Lazaro Yuri Valle Roca in Havana

Havana,13 June, 2015

TO: Representatives of the Interamerican Press Association, and
Reporters Without Borders

FROM: *Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca, Independent Journalist

SUBJECT: Indiscriminate repression Against Ladies in White, peaceful
activist opponents, journalists, bloggers, and independent communicators

By this letter, I am contacting you to make you aware of what is
happening against the Ladies in White, activist opponents, journalists,
bloggers, photojournalists, and independent communicators, who are
committed to the struggle for citizen, human and political rights that
have been violated, and seek to disseminate the reality that our country
has suffered under the Castro brothers' totalitarian regime for more
than 56 years. Now that the repression unleashed by their specialized
entities is worsening, their intent is that we not make known the brutal
repression to which are subjected all who unite in demand for the
release of political prisoners, and for reforms that will truly benefit
the people.

I am not alone in this case. Sharing this situation are my colleagues:
Vladimir Turró Páez and Enrique Díaz, collaborators on Misceláneas de
Cuba and Primavera Digital; Juan González Febles, director of Primavera
Digital; Agustín López Canino and Liván Serafín Moran, independent
journalists; and Antonio Rodiles, director of the Estado de SATS
project, to name a few among those most persecuted by the political
police–a repressive institution that abducts, tortures, threatens with
death and holds abductees in Detention Centers such as police stations,
as well as the so-called "Vivac" prison, located in the village of
Calabazar, at the southern edge of the City of Havana.

We are held in these places for several days with no arrest warrants,
nor safekeeping of our belongings. Our cell phones, cameras, flash
drives, and USB devices are confiscated, and their contents are erased.
In addition, we are verbally and physically threatened; we are beaten
inside the detention centers, and in the vehicles in which we are
transported to them–even while defenseless and handcuffed with plastic
clamps so tight that they cut off our circulation, and we cannot move
our hands, etc. Later, they leave us for hours in the sun inside
hermetically-sealed police vehicles, inducing serious disorders that
have caused many to lose consciousness and present hypoglycemic symptoms.

My case, especially, is notable for the series of arrests, abductions
and death threats that have been made. The last three weeks,
particularly, stand out because my house has been surrounded by agents
from the Department of State Security (DSE) and uniformed patrolmen of
the National Revolutionary Police Force (PNR). They explained their
presence by telling my neighbors that I had committed suicide. This past
May 9, during the night, an automobile rushed at me on 26th Avenue, and
almost ran me over. The matter reached a climax last Sunday in an
incident that I will recount as follows:

On the morning of Sunday, June 7, 2015, I exited my residence to go to
Santa Rita Church, located on 5th Avenue and 26th in the Miramar
district, to cover the news of the return of Ladies in White leader
Berta Soler from a trip to the United States and Europe. A few blocks
from the church, on 7th Avenue and 28th, I was forcefully detained by an
automobile carrying four agents of Precinct 21 of the DSE. They
handcuffed me and put me in the car, on the floor, and immediately put
their feet on me so that I would not move.

In Coyula Park, a few blocks from where I was abducted, they got me out
of that car and put me in another, in the same manner as before, and
after making several turns we arrived at Villa Marista prison,
headquarters of the State Security police. After holding me for all that
time inside the car, under the sun, they took me to an office where a
gray-haired man–to all appearances, a high-ranking official–without
first stating his name, started hurling all kinds of threats at me, so
that I would stop going to Santa Rita Church. One such threat was that I
would be responsible for any misfortune that might befall me, to which I
replied that they could do what they wanted, but I would go on attending
the gatherings of the Ladies in White, to cover the news.

At the end of the interview, they again placed me inside another
vehicle, in the usual manner. After driving for about 20 minutes, the
agent who was at my right got out of the car, drew his weapon (an
automatic Browning 9mm or CZ pistol), and they got me out, made me kneel
on the grass, and put the gun to my neck. After a few seconds of
silence, he said, "You are now on notice about what can happen to you.
Do not go to Santa Rita anymore." He gave me a kick in the ribs that
knocked me over. They got back in their Lada, threw my backpack and
phone out the window, and left me helpless about 3 miles from the
village of Santa Cruz del Norte, which is about 30 miles to the east of
Havana.

As may be seen, the methods employed by this dictatorship are worse
against independent journalists. This is even more the case following
the statements by General-President Raúl Castro during the farewell to
French President François Hollande at José Martí International Airport
last month–remarks delivered with a burlesque and ironic tone.

Without further ado, I trust that what I am reporting to you will not
fall on deaf ears. Perhaps you will agree with me that these procedures
do not meet the standards for humane treatment that correspond to the
century in which we live. I place responsibility on the government of
Raúl Castro for whatever may happen to me and to my colleagues from now on.

Thank you very much,

*Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca
Independent Journalist

I reside at:
Loma Street, ICP Building, Apt.#1
Between Tulipán and Colón
Nuevo Vedado, Plaza de la Revolución
La Habana, Cuba.

Tel: +537-8818203
Mobile: +535-2494085

lazaroyurivalleroca@gmail.com

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Source: Lazaro Yuri Valle Roca Letter to Interamerican Press Association
and Reporters Without Borders | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/lazaro-yuri-valle-roca-letter-to-interamerican-press-association-and-reporters-without-borders/