Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06HAVANA23521
2006-11-16 20:27:00
CONFIDENTIAL
US Interests Section Havana
Cable title:
CUBAN INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST GARCIA DETAINED,
how-toVZCZCXRO1407 RR RUEHAG RUEHROV DE RUEHUB #3521 3202027 ZNY CCCCC ZZH R 162027Z NOV 06 FM USINT HAVANA TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0909 INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 023521
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: CUBAN INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST GARCIA DETAINED,
THREATENED
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Buddy Williams for Reason 1.4(d).
(C) Cuban dissident and frequent USINT visitor Luis Garcia
Vega, aka Lucas Garve, was detained for nearly four hours
November 15 after departing a USINT internet center. Garcia,
an active independent journalist who writes for CubaNet,
among other organizations, told us November 16 that he was
handcuffed near USINT by two National Revolutionary Police
officers at 4:15 pm, driven to a nearby police station,
warned to stop writing about Cuban activists, and released
around 8 pm. (Another activist, Martha Beatriz Roque of the
Assembly to Promote Civil Society, told us she saw two
patrolmen take Garcia into custody.) Garcia told us he was
not asked to sign an incriminating document but had all of
his belongings, including his wallet, searched. Garcia said
a State Security official told him that if he continues to
write articles critical of the Cuban Government, he could be
"held indefinitely, without charge." Dissidents have
reported a sharp increase in brief detentions over the past
six weeks.
WILLIAMS