Inalkis Rodríguez Lora, the assistant editor of the independent journalism project La Hora de Cuba, was stopped on Thursday by State Security in the city of Camagüey, according to the agents who interrogated her, for her to respond to an accusation of "damaging public facilities".
"According to what I have been told, there is an accusation, made by the Office of the Historian, that I painted the facade of Iris María Mariño's house", Rodríguez Lora told the DIARIO DE CUBA.
Mariño, an actress and also a member of the Hora de Cubateam, decided, together with her husband, theater director Mario Junquera, to turn some insulting graffiti left by repressive agents on the walls of her home into a work of art.
Rodríguez Lora made his contribution, as he made public on his Facebook profile, with a quote from José Martí: "A man who does not dare to say what he thinks is not an honest man".
"I don't know who painted the other graffiti, what we do know is who painted the offensive posters accusing Mario: we know they were MININT agents," said Rodríguez Lora, who is also the wife of journalist Henry Constantín, with whom she has a young daughter.
During the interrogation "they told me that the Office of the Historian made the accusation because it invests a lot in the facades, which are falling down, and I was damaging a public facility".
"They barred from me leaving the country, and even the city. I have to ask for permission, and they will decide whether I can leave or not," she complained.
"The conclusion we drew is that this is all due to an invitation from the Cuban Human Rights Observatory for me to travel to Spain, to participate in an event there, and they want to prohibit me from traveling," she said.
"I am under investigation. I refused to sign anything, and they threatened to keep me there with the girl. They also threatened Henry's father with a search of the house," she concluded.
State Security subjects the staff of La Hora de Cuba to constant surveillance, and harasses them.
The regime, which controls all legal means of communication in Cuba, continues to badger the independent press, invoking Article 53 of the Constitution, which prohibits the existence of private media.
The Criminal Code itself includes provisions that allow the exercise of freedom of the press to be prosecuted as a crime against the security of the State. The regime has also created laws, such as No. 88, known as the Gag Law, with sections aimed at repressing independent journalism.
Under this legal justification, the 75 dissidents sent to prison in the spring of 2003 included 27 independent journalists.