Güines' Parish Church, August 1999. Photo by Mariano Domínguez, Miami. Still standing!

Pushing a car. Soparda Street, Güines, October 2002. Photo by Elodia Basaco, Whittier, California

Independent Journalist Attacked After Being Threatened by Political Police

By Héctor Maseda, Grupo Decoro (Decorum Group)

Havana, December 9, 2002 (www.cubanet.org) - Independent journalist José Izquierdo Hernández was threatened and verbally attacked by agents of Güines' political police, a municipality located in Havana Province, and later on, he was the victim of a strange accident when he was hit by an automobile.

The repressive acts against Izquierdo began in the morning of December 4, when two agents of the State Security Department (SSD) presented themselves at the journalist’s home and threatened him with incarceration if he attended that day’s religious festivities honoring Saint Barbara.

The agents, one of them identified as Eddy Pérez, prohibited Izquierdo to report about the religious act and threatened him that he would be charged with contempt and disobedience to authority if he did not comply with their verbal order.

The journalist told the agents of the political police that he would go to Saint Barbara's celebration because he was going to cover the event. When Izquierdo arrived at the place of the religious act he was badgered by more than a dozen agents of SSD who started to provoke the journalist, insulting him with obscene words. Nevertheless, Izquierdo did not allow to be provoked by the agents and continued performing his journalistic job.

After the procession ended, around six o’clock in the evening, Izquierdo went to the independent library Francisco Riverón located in Güines, municipal capital, to cover an evening event in favor of the liberation of Cuban political prisoners.

When he was heading to that place, he was followed by several SSD agents, and was able to identify two among them, supposedly named Arístides Hernández and Héctor Bacallao.

At the conclusion of the event, when he was going home in Cruz Settlement, Izquierdo was hit by an automobile when it impacted the rear wheel of the bicycle he usually rides. The collision threw him into a ditch in the highway, where he injured one of his legs and the side of his abdomen. The accident took place near a place called Ramié and the only thing Izquierdo could see was the make of the car, a Russian made Lada automobile.

“The car stopped a few meters from the place and when the occupants of the vehicle realized the results of their act, they accelerated and left me laying there. I traveled in darkness about two kilometers until I reached home. During this distance I dragged my broken bicycle”, said Izquierdo.

José Izquierdo Hernández, 37 years old, directly blames the physical assault suffered by him in the Ramié area to political police agents Arístides Hernández and Héctor Bacallao, as well as those others that on December 4, verbally threatened and assaulted him.

The journalist appeals to public opinion and to international organizations that watch for journalists' safety, to demand from Fidel Castro’s Government, to stop this new repressive wave against Cuban independent journalists and other dissidents.