In Cuba, journalist Yoani Sánchez announces her release after her “arbitrary arrest”

One of the figures of independent journalism in Cuba, Yoani Sánchez, announced Thursday that she had been released after an “arbitrary arrest” and a few hours of detention in Havana.

“I have just arrived home, thank you all for the solidarity and for relaying the information on the arbitrary arrest I suffered this morning. It is this support that succeeded in breaking down the locks and opening the bars,” Ms. Sánchez wrote on the X platform.

The online daily 14ymedio, which Ms. Sánchez founded and directed, announced in the morning that the journalist had been “kidnapped by the political police” as she left her home in the Nuevo Vedado neighborhood to go shopping. The NGO Reporters Without Borders condemned Sánchez's arrest on X and demanded "his immediate release, guarantees for his safety and an end to the persecution against independent journalism."

Her arrest occurred the same day as that of the leader of the Ladies in White movement, Berta Soler, 63, in the company of another member of the collective, Maria Cristina Labrada, "in the middle of the street when both were leaving the house" which serves as the organization's headquarters, Angel Moya, the dissident's husband, told AFP.

The Ladies in White movement, made up of mothers and wives of opponents arrested in 2003 under Fidel Castro (1959-2006), was awarded the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize in 2005. The women who are part of it dress in white as a sign of peaceful protest.

Berta Soler, whose fate was unknown Thursday evening, is regularly the subject of arrests lasting several hours to a few days. She is also frequently prevented from leaving her home by the authorities.

Yoani Sánchez, 51, won the Ortega y Gasset prize in 2008, one of the most important distinctions for journalism in Spanish. The same year, she was included in the ranking of the 100 most influential people in the world by the American magazine Time. His online newspaper, critical of the management of the government of the communist island, regularly denounces the censorship and harassment exercised by the authorities against opponents.

Independent Cuban journalists regularly face pressure from the authorities. According to a law passed in 2023, state media, controlled by the Communist Party, are the only ones authorized on the island. However, several independent online media have emerged in recent years and have until now survived as best they could in a legal vacuum. Cubans can only access it through a virtual private network (VPN).

The newspaper 14ymedio claims that several opposition media contributors have been arrested in the street in recent weeks, then released after receiving fines or warnings.