Independent journalist Osniel Carmona arrested for filming at the Book Fair

The independent journalistOsniel Carmona Breijo The Havana International Book Fair was detained this Sunday, where he was filming and conducting interviews.

"They arrested him for filming the book fair this afternoon, and the whereabouts of Osniel Carmona, who is incommunicado, are still unknown, so it can be declared that he is in 'forced disappearance.' #InformarNoEsDelito”, reported the organizationCubalex on their social networks.

Carmona Breijo, collaborator of the independent mediaCubaNet, was arrested while doing his job on the last day of the fair along with fellow journalist,Alejandro Hernandez Cepero. According to the aforementioned media, he was able to escape from the police and notify his colleague of his arrest.

The events happened while they were filming in the tents. According to Hernández Cepero, both noticed that their presence was followed by a police officer who feigned interest in the price of the books on display. The journalists did not give importance to the matter and continued with their work.

However, a little later a repressor dressed in civilian clothes approached them and began asking Carmona Breijo questions. "The last thing I heard was 'I'm fromCubaNet'” said Hernández Cepero, who remembers that it was 4:05 in the afternoon because he was talking to his daughter on the phone right at that moment.

Separated a few meters from his colleague, Hernández Cepero witnessed how he was led by a non-uniformed individual who never identified himself, but who was directing four officers of the National Revolutionary Police.

“I immediately noticed that other police officers were looking for me, so I walked between different stands in the hope of being able to mislead them and leave the premises to be able to communicate what happened,” he said.

Four hours after the arrest, the independent journalist's whereabouts were unknown and did not answer calls or messages on his cell phone, despite it being on.

"His whereabouts are unknown and he is incommunicado, so it can be declared that he is in 'forced disappearance,'" he said.CubaNet.

According to this medium, in April of last year, Carmona Breijo was detained outside the La Mariposa Children's Park, in Lenin Park, where he was taking images for journalistic work, and was transferred to the Ninth Unit of the PNR, where he remained for 18 hours locked in a room of just two square meters, without light or ventilation.

“The feeling of claustrophobia and suffocation was enormous, I even felt relief when the State Security officers entered. I thought that after the interrogation and threats they would surely put me in a common cell, and with luck they would release me that same day,” the journalist declared then.

In September 2018,Carmona Breijo was included among the journalists harassed and retaliated by the Cuban regime, according to the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), which expressed its alarm at the climate of insecurity and harassment against independent journalists and media outlets, which increased a few months after the Cuban ruler took the reins of power.Miguel Diaz-Canel.