CUBA

AUGUST 8, 2005
Posted: August 17, 2005

Lucas Garve, freelance

HARASSED

Garve, a freelance journalist, was harassed twice by government supporters outside his home in the Havana neighborhood of Mantilla.

Garve was sleeping around 10:30 p.m. when government supporters woke him up and warned him not to leave his apartment the next day, according to Ana Leonor Díaz, the director of the independent news agency Decoro. The crowd was made up of dozens of government supporters and was led by a local government official, Díaz said. They stayed outside Garve’s home until 4:30 p.m. the following day.

On August 11, around 8:30 a.m., a smaller group again congregated outside Garve’s home and warned him that an opposition meeting would be held and he couldn’t leave home. They told him: “We know you are an opposition member and you’re going out, we won’t allow you to do so,” Díaz said.

In addition to writing reports for the Miami-based news Web site CubaNet, Garve is the director of the Fundación por la Libertad de Expresión, a small group of journalists that organizes activities to promote freedom of expression in Cuba.

In July and August, the Cuban government organized several so-called “repudiation acts,” during which government supporters congregated outside the homes of opposition members and independent journalists, blocking access, and preventing them from leaving their homes and receiving visitors.