The independent journalist Camila Acosta, a reporter for CubaNet and a correspondent for the Spanish newspaper ABC in Havana, publicly denounced that State Security agents destroyed her mobile phone with a corrosive substance during her detention on November 3, describing it as a direct act of retaliation against her journalistic work.
Acosta posted on Facebook photographs of the device—an iPhone—that show traces of a greenish liquid inside and in the SIM tray. "This is how they returned my phone: completely unusable. They poured some kind of green liquid on it, maybe some acid. It's still damp in some areas. This is how the Cuban intelligence services operate: like vile criminals. They broke it because they fear my work, because they fear the truth," the journalist wrote.
A technician who examined the device confirmed the diagnosis: the damage was caused by some type of acid, and the device is not even good for spare parts.
"What does this demonstrate? That they are a mafia operating with complete impunity. That they want to silence us. That they are vengeful," Acosta pointed out, also dismissing the idea that filing a formal complaint would be meaningful: "Can they do that? In a democracy, no, but in Cuba, where they hold all the power, they do whatever they want."
The journalist was arrested on November 3rd while heading to the veterinarian with her cat, in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality. Two plainclothes officers and two uniformed police officers handcuffed her with her hands behind her back and forcefully put her into a patrol car. She spent more than eight hours at the Playa police station, without her family being able to locate her for a significant part of that time.
During the interrogation, an officer identified as a lieutenant colonel informed him that they would be issuing a warning document for having recorded, on October 28, a plainclothes officer who was preventing him from leaving his home without presenting a judicial order or identification. The authorities invoked Article 393.1 of the Cuban Penal Code and threatened him with penalties of up to five years in prison. Acosta refused to sign the document.
Regarding her decision to continue recording the agents, the journalist was clear: "It's the only evidence I will have tomorrow if something happens to me."
The Cuban regime is seeking to prosecute Acosta under the same article that was used to condemn activist Anna Bensi and her mother Caridad Silvente to two years of restricted freedom for recording and sharing on social media the visit of a MININT agent to their home.
The destruction of the phone adds to one week of intense repression against independent journalism in Cuba. On November 2, Adelth Bonne Gamboa, a collaborator with CubaNet, was violently detained, his equipment was confiscated, and he was fined 3,000 pesos. Three days later, Yoani Sánchez, founder of 14ymedio, was arrested for nine hours and charged with "violating the constitutional order." The Committee to Protect Journalists described these detentions as part of a systematic campaign, while Freedom House condemned them as "a broader effort to silence independent journalism and obscure the reality of repression in Cuba."
Despite everything, Acosta made it clear that the sabotage would not achieve its goal: "Of course, they have not —and will not— silence me."
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