Serious Threat against Journalist in Cuba

Serious Threat against Journalist in Cuba
February 20, 2017

HAVANA TIMES – Today the journalist Fernando Ravsberg warns of the
public threats he has received from people linked to the most extremist
side of Cuban officialdom.

Ravsberg, who currently works for the Spanish newspaper Publico.es and
writes his blog "Cartas desde Cuba" has been the victim of defamation
campaigns, like many other independent journalists, by bloggers and
journalists under the protection of the Cuban government. They continue
to urge the government to expel Ravsberg from the country, where he has
lived and worked for a quarter of a century.

The following is the alert published today by the Uruguayan journalist.

They Threaten to Break My Teeth if I Continue Writing
by Fernando Ravsberg

In several "revolutionary" blogs like La Mala Palabra, Cuba por Siempre
and Isla Mía, this last one of the journalist Norelys Morales, has just
appeared an article on the problems of transportation in Cuba, written
by a certain Felix Edmundo Diaz, that ends with a strong threat against
me. I transcribe it:

"I want to convey an idea to a colleague: Fernan, read Fernando
Ravsberg, do you really think that you can live in Cuba ranting against
my people? Don't you think it's time for you to start to write in
"Letters from the USA" or "Letters from Spain"? Why don't you pay a
visit to Uribe or Peña Nieto and write "Letters from Colombia" or
Letters from Mexico". Go, just to see if any 'paramilitary'
(self-defense?) or some 'Zeta' gives you a kick in the groin and your
balls come out of your ears…

"From here, in Cuba, it is easy because you know that nobody will kidnap
you, disappear, torture or kill you, but we are not obliged to allow you
to live and rant on our soil. That's why my offer for you is simple: Get
the hell out of here or refine your writing. Remember that at your age
your teeth won't come out again and dental implants are expensive… "

They just took another step on the level of insults, they resume the
request for expulsion and, above all, it is the first time that I am
directly threatened with a beating. It is not accidental, recently I
commented that the extremists might win and evidently this text shows
that they are emboldened.

I am convinced that if the Cuban government does not put a stop to them
the next step will be to move from threats to actions, it is the path of
both right and leftwing extremists: you silence yourself out of fear or
you are silenced by force.

Source: Serious Threat against Journalist in Cuba - Havana Times.org -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=123787