Cuban authorities have revoked the credentials of Spanish news agency EFE ahead of planned opposition demonstrations. — AFP pic
HAVANA, Nov 15 — Cuban authorities yesterday revoked the credentials of journalists who work for Spanish news agency EFE, its local editor-in-chief said, on the eve of planned anti-government demonstrations by the opposition.
Atahualpa Amerise, head of EFE’s Cuba bureau, said authorities asked them to return their credentials, without providing “the exact reason” why they would be prohibited from reporting.
“When we asked why, they pointed to the regulations on foreign press,” Amerise said.
“They haven’t told us whether it’s temporary or permanent.”
EFE’s local bureau has three editors, a photographer and a videographer.
Amerise said it was the first time such an order had been given to a foreign press office in Cuba.
The injunction came a day before opposition figure Yunior Garcia’s planned march alone along a street in central Havana in defiance of an official threat of arrest.
The opposition has called for a demonstration on Monday — also prohibited by the communist authorities — to call for the release of political prisoners.
The march will come four months after the historic July protests, during which marchers shouted “We are hungry” and “Freedom.”
They left one person dead, dozens injured and 1,270 people arrested, of whom 658 remain in prison, according to the NGO Cubalex.
Authorities have accused protest organisers of being backed by the United States in an effort to try to destabilise the Cuban government. — AFP