Independent journalist banned from leaving the country

At 7:30 a.m. on 20th September, in Terminal 3 of the José Martí International Airport, immigration authorities prohibited activist Marelys Fonseca Viltres from leaving the country. When she arrived at the immigration controls, she was detained and guarded until the immigration office, where she was interrogated. The officer who held her documents did not inform her of the reason for the ban on her leaving, and asked her if she had any criminal or economic debts, to which she responded by saying that she had never been sanctioned by any court, that she had no criminal record, and that there was no legal process against her. She said she had no debts to the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT), the National Bank of Cuba or any other Cuban state or private institution. When she demanded an explanation from the airport's emigration offices as to the reasons for the travel ban, the official informed her that an exit regulation had been imposed on her from Granma, which she did not understand why, nor did she have elements to justify the cause of the ban and that any claim about her situation had to be made in Granma, where the restriction was imposed. The official cancelled his ticket at the airline's check-in desk and asked her to leave the migration control area.