Activist summoned and threatened by the authorities for his labor as independent journalist

Independent journalist and activist Roberto Rodríguez went to the Provincial Unit for the Instruction of Crimes against State Security of Bayamo to comply with a summons he had received two days earlier. There, officer Ramiro subjected him to an interrogation about his work as a journalist for media outlets outside Cuba, accusing him of being a mercenary and a counter-revolutionary; and threatened to instruct him on charges of crimes against state security (Law 88) and also to charge his wife with similar charges for collaborating with photographic material for his articles. The officer told him that once they were in prison, they would be moved as far away from each other and from their families as possible, so that they could not receive visits, and that they would make sure to make life impossible for them in prison and to take away the parental rights of their two youngest daughters (12 and 1 year old). According to the activist, these threats were made in a very bad way and amidst offenses and obscenities. The officer also told him that they were just waiting for orders and that the first head to roll in Bayamo was going to be his, because they were already tired of him and it was about time he had a pretty painful lesson. The threats ended up telling him that even if he managed to get out of prison, he would not be able to have peace of mind because "they would have their eye on him and they would make him land and at the first opportunity they would lock him up again. A warning was also issued against the activist, which he refused to sign.