The president of the Efe news agency, Gabriela Cañas, regretted this Wednesday that the Cuban government is “expelling” the Spanish agency from the country, with the withdrawal of the credentials of its journalists in Havana, and said that the company has begun to study how maintain a presence in the Caribbean country.
Cañas made the statements during his participation in the Forum Nueva Economía, in Madrid. She pointed out that “almost 50% of the news” published in Latin America about Cuba comes from EFE, which has been in the country for nearly five decades, and argued that “maybe this repercussion” does not please the Cuban regime.
“They are expelling us from Cuba. We cannot currently, with just two journalists, maintain the quality standards that Agência Efe has offered in the country until now. It is very sad,” he declared. For this reason, Cañas warned that the company is analyzing possibilities.
“We are beginning to consider our stay on the island. We cannot practice journalism freely”, stressed the president of Efe, in addition to adding that the agency has no interest in leaving Cuba, but it may be necessary to “inform from outside”.
Cañas assured that “unfortunately” the situation with the Cuban regime has not been resolved, despite the diplomatic support of the Spanish Executive Power. While in mid-2021 there were seven agency journalists working in Havana, now only two – a copywriter and a cameraman – have press credentials.
Complications for the agency began when the Cuban dictatorship began to postpone, without explanation, the granting of a press visa to the new EFE representative, who was appointed in July last year, but has not yet been able to enter the country.
In addition, as Cañas added, in November the International Press Center withdrew the credentials of all Efe professionals in Cuba.
“We were left without witnesses on the island,” he said.
The Cuban entity returned credentials two hours later, but since then the situation has stagnated. Havana assured that it would return the licenses “with good will”, as Efe reported in November, but so far this has not happened.
“We’ve asked a thousand times to let us work there,” said Cañas.
#News #Agency #Expelled #Cuba #Regime