CUBA UNLEASHES MOB ON BLOGGERS

C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 000704 SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CCA AND WHA/PD STATE FOR DRL CNEWLING E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2019 TAGS: PREL PHUM PGOV CU SUBJECT: CUBA UNLEASHES MOB ON BLOGGERS REF: A. HAVANA 684 ("BLOGGERS BEATEN BUT NOT DETERRED") ¶B. HAVANA 695 ("BLOGGER THRILLED WITH POTUS RESPONSE TO HER Q&AS") Classified By: Political Officer Joaquin Monserrate for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (SBU) Cuban blogger Reinaldo Escobar was attacked by a pro-government mob on November 20, 2009. Escobar had challenged the state security agents who beat his blogger wife Yoani Sanchez to meet in the same spot where she was picked up and roughed-up on November 6 (Ref A). Escobar was answering questions from the foreign press when the angry mob moved in and surrounded his group. Chanting pro-government slogans and vowing action against "traitors," the crowd began to push and shove Escobar and at least a dozen other bloggers who had accompanied him. As Escobar tried to make his way out, he and a companion were picked up by state security agents who pulled up in a car, driven to a distant neighborhood and dropped off. Foreign press and bloggers filmed the event, and news spread quickly through tweets by Yoani Sanchez, who was not present, and blogger Claudia Cadelo, who was. ¶2. (C) Escobar spoke with Poloff hours after the incident. He was rattled but appeared to have no serious injuries. Escobar believed the attack was state-organized, and estimated the mob to be 300-400 people, claims which were backed up by both video and witnesses. He said that the state security agents who picked him up refused to identify themselves, did not say anything to him or his companion before dropping them off, and were neither physically nor verbally abusive. Escobar noted that several foreign journalists had asked him whether he viewed the attack as a reprisal for President Obama's published responses to Yoani Sanchez earlier that week (Ref B). He believed the attack was unconnected, and had likely been planned before the answers were published. ¶3. (C) In a press statement sent Friday to foreign correspondents on the island, the GOC framed the event as a "spontaneous" protest by "loyal" Cubans who were tired of Yoani Sanchez and other bloggers' "counter-revolutionary" opinions. According to the GOC, the crowds had been taking part in a peaceful and unrelated Communist Youth book fair at the same location. The GOC claimed to have rescued Escobar from the angry mob. ¶4. (C) COMMENT: Sanchez, Escobar and other Cuban bloggers claim that they are not members of the dissident community or the opposition camp. Over the past few months, however, their writing has become more politicized, and they have engaged in increasingly public activities. As long as the bloggers kept their activism online, the community had appeared to exist in a special sphere of protection from traditional reprisals such as organized mob attacks and detentions. Now, the gloves may be off. Sanchez and Escobar both told Poloffs in a prior conversation that they expected increased GOC repression in the coming months. FARRAR