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The Cuban journalist Henry Constantin, director of the independent media La Hora de Cuba, was arrested again this Tuesday in the city of Camagüey, just one week after being detained in Havana.
According to reported by his own outlet, Constantin was intercepted by a patrol from the Revolutionary National Police while outside his daughter’s home.
The arrest took place around 4:30 p.m., without the agents providing any explanation, and the journalist was released approximately an hour later.
A member of La Hora de Cuba who witnessed the scene reported that the patrol stopped at the block and two officers got out, while a third remained at a distance.
The agents first asked for his driver's license and then his personal documents, before intimidatingly demanding that he accompany them.
Everything happened in front of her daughter, a circumstance that the media described as an act of psychological violence and public humiliation.
During his detention, colleagues from the media tried to locate him, but the police denied his presence at the First Unit of the PNR in Camagüey.
No authority provided information regarding the reasons for the arrest or the alleged charges against him.
Since Monday, Constantin —who is also the regional vice president for Cuba of the Inter American Press Association's Commission on Freedom of the Press (SIP)— had reported difficulties connecting to the internet, a form of censorship that often accompanies episodes of harassment against independent journalists.
This new arrest comes just six days after State Security agents stormed his home in Havana and detained him on charges of "public disorder," which his outlet regards as entirely baseless.
That operation coincided with the arrival in Cuba of the remains of the regime officials who were killed during the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.
The Hour of Cuba reported that the detention of its director is part of a pattern of surveillance, internet outages, and arbitrary arrests aimed at intimidating the independent press.
"There was no explanation, only arrogance and fear of free journalism," concluded the media outlet in its statement.
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