The White House regretted this Friday that Cuba felt the need to “silence the voices of objective journalists” from Efe Agency on the island and believes that the Cuban government does not want the world to see what is happening in the country. In an interview, the person responsible for Latin America and the Caribbean at the White House, Juan González, referred to the removal of the press credentials of five journalists from the agency in Havana last Saturday. Only two have been restored so far.
“When a government, or a regime in this context, needs to silence the voices, especially those of objective journalists, it’s because they don’t want the world to see what’s going on or because they’re ashamed and they know what they’re doing is wrong.” said Gonzalez. The US government official, who is the chief adviser to US President Joe Biden for Latin America, said Cuba should respect fundamental universal rights and accept that journalists have the right to work even if governments don’t like it. that say. “Cuba has signed agreements at the United Nations that require them to allow the free expression of opinions, not detain individuals without a cause, and allow journalists to do their jobs,” he recalled.
González also said that the island’s government’s reaction to the July 11 protests showed that “the regime responds to any peaceful protester with violence, with draconian sentences, and this reflects a lack of respect for the people.” He added: “And it is obvious that here, after 62 years, communism has not provided the Cuban people with the benefit it could have had if the Cubans themselves were to determine their future.”
Cuban authorities informed the Spanish government on Wednesday about the return of two more credentials to the journalists of the Efe Agency team in Havana, of the five that had been withdrawn after they returned two credentials last Sunday, according to Spanish diplomatic sources. . The return of these credentials will be accompanied by authorization to grant a journalist visa to the new Efe delegate in Cuba, Juan Palop, appointed by the agency at the end of July. The Caribbean country’s authorities will make these decisions effective as of the 28th.
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