Yoani Sánchez detained for 9 hours by political police in Havana
The director of 14ymedio was arrested leaving her home in Nuevo Vedado and accused of "propaganda against the constitutional order".
Yoani Sánchez released after nine hours in custody of the State Security
The journalist and director of the digital media outlet 14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, was detained on Thursday by agents of Cuban State Security when leaving her residence in Nuevo Vedado, a municipality in Havana's Plaza de la Revolución district, at approximately 9:30 in the morning. According to 14ymedio.com, she was held for nine hours before being released.
The journalist had informed her colleagues of a brief trip to the neighbourhood market. Just ten minutes later she managed to send a four-word message: "The police kidnapped me." Building neighbours noted that an agent known as Bruno was circulating around the ground floor of the building at the time of detention.
The authorities charged her with "propaganda against the constitutional order", according to Sánchez's own account.
International reactions
The detention sparked a wave of condemnations from press organisations, governments and activists. Juan Pablo Segura, adjunct deputy secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the United States, posted on X that the arrest "is part of the sustained campaign by the Cuban regime to crush the independent press". His message was shared by the United States Embassy in Havana.
Reporters Without Borders described the incident as an "attack on independent journalism on the Island" and demanded that the authorities report on Sánchez's whereabouts, guarantee her safety and release her. Amnesty International and the Inter-American Press Society (SIP) also condemned the detention.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement in which it "strongly" rejected the arrest. José Zamora, regional director of the CPJ for the Americas, stated: "Her detention is part of a broader crackdown against independent journalists. The authorities must end these arrests and allow journalists to report without fear of reprisal."
Media outlets including El País, El Mundo, The Objective, Martí Noticias, Miami Herald, El Universal and South China Morning Post reported on the case.
A week of arrests of journalists and activists
On the same Thursday, Ladies in White Berta Soler and María Cristina Labrada were also detained in public. At 14:34, according to a denunciation by Soler's husband, Ángel Moya, both remained missing.
Days earlier, on Monday, police officers violently detained Adelth Bonne Gamboa, a contributor to CubaNet, handcuffed him and took him away in a patrol car. He was released hours later, but with a fine for his social media posts, several work equipment items confiscated and new threats of imprisonment.
On Tuesday, Camila Acosta, also a contributor to CubaNet, was detained on the street and taken to a police station in handcuffs by State Security agents. The authorities disabled her mobile phone and issued her with a warning report for having disseminated images of a public official. Acosta had filmed on 28 October an agent who prevented her from leaving her home; that recording was published by the outlet she works with and amplified on social media, in circumstances similar to those that led to the conviction of influencer Anna Bensi to two years of restricted liberty.
In mid-September, State Security detained Henry Constantín, director of La Hora de Cuba. Days later he was transferred to Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey, where he remains in preventive custody accused of disobedience.
A pattern of repression against 14ymedio
Several journalists at 14ymedio have been victims of this type of repression since the founding of the outlet in May 2014. Reinaldo Escobar has been detained on numerous occasions, many of them coinciding with events of significance, such as the visit of president Barack Obama in 2016 or that of Pope Francis in 2015. For years he was subject to a migration regulation that prevented him from leaving Cuba.
Luz Escobar suffered repeated detentions at her home, with situations of harassment in front of her minor daughters, which led to her exile to Spain, where she has lived with asylum since 2022.
Among other contributors to the outlet, José Gabriel Barrenechea was detained in 2024 and sentenced to six years in prison. Yudiel Hernández was imprisoned for three months in 2025 for investigating drug trafficking in a school in Matanzas.
Source: Google News CU — La Habana