State Security releases Cuban journalist José Luis Tan Estrada

State Security in Cuba released the independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada and returned him to Camagüey, after keeping him in prison for several days without informing him of the reasons.

The activist Yamilka Lafita (Lara Crofs) through her Facebook account expressed her gratitude to all those who supported the cause for the release of Tan Estrada.

"José Luis is free! Thank you very much to everyone who showed solidarity with his brother's cause and supported us. The instructor told him that 'your little friends we had a lot of noise' out here," he commented.

This release comes after an intense Cuban civil society campaign, which included a collection of signatures on the Change.org platform.

The initiative sought to highlight the situation of harassment and constant threats that Tan Estrada suffered, which was widely documented by the independent media CubaNet in a chronology of the events that led to his arrest on April 26 in Villa Marista, the headquarters of State Security.

The petition, addressed to the Cuban government, highlighted the need for support from the international community and fellow journalists to request the immediate and unconditional release of the young man who had not been formally accused of any crime and was being held incommunicado in the Villa Marista dungeons.

The mobilization around his case highlights the concern about the strategy of harassment and political persecution to which Tan Estrada has been subjected, especially notable since his expulsion as a professor from the University of Camagüey.

This release occurs just when, on the eve of the May Day parade organized by the Havana regime. In these days it was reported Internet service cuts to independent journalists, home harassment and arrests of opponents on the island.

These internet outages, which affected independent reporters in Cuba, are not a new phenomenon. Every time significant dates approach or a mass event is organized, the regime interrupts the service to independent journalists, harasses them in their homes and even detains them in police units, preventing the free circulation of information inside and outside Cuba.