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The independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, based in Washington D.C., reported on Saturday that he received direct threats via WhatsApp from a Cuban number, in retaliation for his coverage of the fatal accident in Santiago de Cuba, for which multiple sources point to Juan Guillermo Almeida (JG), son of the late Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque, as a possible culprit.
The threat arrived on Friday night at 10:55 p.m. from the Cuban number +53 5 9568243, identified on WhatsApp under the name "Liova."
The sender first attempted a direct call; upon receiving no response, they wrote and called again. The call lasted 51 seconds. The message was brief and to the point: "We will knock on your door at 10:00 in the morning."
Mayeta posted the complaint on Facebook, exposing the number of the person who made the threat and indicating that there are signs suggesting it is "someone close to Juan Guillermo Almeida" who "allegedly operates in connection with State Security and at the service of the communist leaders."
"Thus, with that naturalness, as if they were still in Cuba. As if the rules here were the same. As if the fear they sow on the island traveled with them. They were mistaken about the country," wrote the journalist.
The threats arise in the context of the investigation that Mayeta has been publishing for days about the fatal accident that occurred on May 1 at the intersection of 2 and Escario streets, in the Santa Bárbara neighborhood of Santiago de Cuba, known as "the corner of death."
In that incident, Agustín Maceo Perdomo, known as "Pacolo," was hit while riding his scooter. He arrived at the Saturnino Lora Provincial Hospital stating that "he had fallen," without mentioning the accident. Hours later, he presented with convulsions and confusion, diagnosed with a hemorrhagic stroke, and passed away on the night of May 5. He left behind a young daughter and a young wife.
Last Thursday, Juan Juan Almeida —brother of JG and a Cuban opposition figure exiled in Miami— broke the silence in a live broadcast on Facebook, stating that his brother told him "he wasn't driving," but that "he would take responsibility like a man."
Juan Juan Almeida also pointed out the structural impunity of the regime: "If a powerful person is guilty of anything, often nothing happens. There is no prison, no trial, no guilt, no prosecution, no laws, no equalities, there is nothing."
JG is a salsa and reggaeton musician with businesses in Santiago de Cuba and connections to the state power, which has fueled public outrage at the possibility that the case may go unpunished.
Mayeta is not unfamiliar with harassment. He has been physically assaulted near the Cuban diplomatic headquarters in Washington D.C. and has systematically documented the regime's repression.
The Inter-American Press Association condemned in March the increase in repression against independent Cuban journalists, describing it as a "persistent pattern of harassment by the State."
The journalist was emphatic in his public denunciation: "If anything happens to me in the United States, or to my family in Cuba, the responsibility falls directly on the person behind that number and on his boss, Juan Guillermo Almeida."
"This is not a threat that is kept in the pocket. It is a public denunciation. They have names, they have numbers, and now they have an audience."
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