Reporters Without Borders (RSF) demanded on Monday the immediate release of Henry Constantín Ferreiro, founder and director of the independent digital media La Hora de Cuba, who has been in pretrial detention at the maximum-security Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey since September 16.
According to the report published by the organization, the Cuban regime accuses the journalist of "disobedience" for allegedly failing to appear for a migration summons on September 9.
However, Constantín himself posted that same day on his Facebook page that he did go to the Immigration Office in Vista Hermosa, where the agents had already left and informed him that he would receive a new summons.
On September 15, he received a verbal summons to appear the following day at a unit of the National Police. Upon attending, he did not come out again. His colleagues searched for him for hours in various detention centers until they located him in "Villa María Luisa," the operations and interrogation headquarters of State Security in Camagüey.
The regime placed the journalist in preventive detention and, on September 24, transferred him without prior notice to Kilo 7 prison, without informing his family.
During the first five days of detention, the defense could not access the case file. Once obtained, their lawyer prepared a request to replace preventive detention with another precautionary measure, while the habeas corpus procedure submitted to the Provincial People's Court of Camagüey faced delays and administrative obstacles.
His partner, the journalist Alejandra García, managed to visit him briefly in Villa María Luisa and deliver medications and essential items. Through her, Constantín sent a message to the outside: «I am calm and remain determined».
According to RSF, this is at least the 19th arrest of the journalist related to his work.
Among the most recent arrests was one week detained in December 2024; three arrests in January 2026 within less than two weeks, including 44 hours incommunicado in Havana; and four days in Villa María Luisa in June 2025, charged with contempt for publishing a complaint about a State Security agent.
Additionally, since 2019, he has been prohibited from leaving Cuban territory, which prevented him from traveling to Stockholm to receive the «Civil Rights Defender of the Year» award that La Hora de Cuba received along with the Georgian outlet Netgazeti in May of this year.
The Cuban intellectual Alina Bárbara López publicly reacted to the preventive detention with a question that encapsulated the feelings of many: «State of terror or terror of the State?».
Organizations such as the Inter-American Press Association (SIP), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), and Civil Rights Defenders joined RSF's call for the immediate release of the journalist and to denounce violations of due process.
RSF also documented that in September, independent journalist Yunia Figueredo, former director of Amanecer Habanero, was forced to report to the authorities monthly under the threat of legal action for "disobedience", which highlights a systematic pattern of harassment against independent journalism on the island.
Cuba ranks 160 out of 180 in the RSF Press Freedom Index, with a score of 29.22. Artur Romeu, director of the Latin America office for the organization, was emphatic: «RSF demands that the journalist and their team be allowed to continue their informative work without intimidation or arbitrary restrictions».
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