HAVANA, CUBA: POLICE AND POLITICAL REPRESSION, ACTIVISTS AND BLOGGERS ARRESTED

For unexplained reasons, Cuban security officials suddenly targeted a number of bloggers and activists Friday, arresting some, interrogating others, and giving many concern for their safety.

The one thing all the targeted people have in common was their association with Yoani Sanchez and the Blogger Academy that operates in her Havana home. Sanchez is a popular and controversial blogger who interviewed President Barack Obama last year.

The arrests sent shock waves through Havana’s artistic and intellectual communities, worried about the consequences for the independent Cuban blogosphere, which during the past year has conquered many spaces for freedom of expression inside Cuba and raised Cuban exile solidarity in hopes of a peaceful transition to a democratic system.

While government officials declined to explain their actions, this much is known: Friday afternoon, residents of the area said they noticed an unusual police presence, along with the motorcycles and unmarked cars typical for state security. At the same time, an improvised festival for the Young Communist League suddenly took shape there. The governmental conference “Cubans Residing Abroad against Blockade and in Defense of National Sovereignty” was also ending Friday, with its 450 Cuban émigrés from 42 countries attending a concert nearby.

Some of those detained said that the authorities seemed to fear that a march was planned, similar to one that took place Nov. 6. On that occasion, young people walked about a half a mile without permission with signs reading, “No More Violence” and “Join Us.”

The first reported arrest was that of Claudio Fuentes Madan, a photographer and teacher. Fuentes Madan later related that was interrogated throughout the day at various locations around the city, and forced to undergo a blood pressure exam at a Havana hospital in the outskirts. He was given no reason for the day-long interrogation; after his release he said that the questions focused on his friends and family.

Silvio Benitez, leader of the outlawed Liberal Party of the Cuban Republic, was also arrested at home, said his wife, and remained in custody the whole day. Benitez has attended the Bloggers’ Academy since its foundation on October 2009. Today he related that he was warned about a supposed protest “provocation” to be held yesterday in El Vedado, in presence of the delegates of the conference for Cubans residing abroad.

Katia Sonia was summoned to an interview and questioned at length about the activities of her and her husband, a Pastor. She is an active member of Women and Mothers Against Repression in Cuba, and another Academy student; upon release she reported that her recent work as a blogger was the focus of her interrogation.

William Retureta, a teenager who also attends the Blogger Academy, declared that in the afternoon he was forced into an unmarked car as he was walking down the street. He was driven randomly around Havana while plainclothes agents threatened him, but ultimately freed at a local police station. Retureta said he was warned to tell his friends to stay away from one of Havana’s most popular area for young people, the intersection of 23rd Street and the historic Avenue of the Presidents, in El Vedado.

Finally at 6 p.m., as blogger Yoani Sanchez was traveling to a family birthday party with her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, an independent journalist, and their 14-year-old son Teo, they too were briefly detained. Sanchez was twittering by mobile phone in minutes that three unmarked cars blocked the path of their taxi, forcing the family from the car, just a few yards from the Ministry of the Armed Forces and Cuban President Raul Castro’s office.

The family was threatened by plainclothes agents who seemed to want to goad them into aggressive behaviors or words, as one agent filmed the entire scene, according to Sanchez. She said that Escobar asked the agents for their names, which they would not provide, young Teo remarked that “cowards don’t give their names,” while Yoani turned to the camera to ensure that her response to the threats made to her family was recorded.

Sanchez, who was forced into an unmarked car by three plainclothes agents and beaten last November, immediately posted the day’s events to her blog, Generation Y, closing with: “I will not stop writing, or Twittering; I have no plans to close my blog, nor abandon the practice of thinking with my own mind and – above all – I am not going to stop believing that they are much more frightened than I am.”

Thanks to the Twitter mobile phone accounts of Sanchez and Claudia Cadelo de Nevi, perhaps Cuba’s second-best-known blogger, a wave of international support was generated within minutes after the arrests. The previous day, Thursday Jan. 28, coincided with the first anniversary of the independent blogging portal Cuban Voices, which now houses 26 Cuban blogs, including those of Sanchez, Cadelo de Nevi, Escobar, and Sonia.