Blogger terrorised by Cuban authorities

Yoani Sánchez, a prominent 34 year old blogger based in Cuba, is one of the most vocal voices of opposition to the island nation’s communist dictatorship. But it appears as though the country’s secret police service has decided to strike down on a blogger that has been far more critical of Cuba’s lack of human rights than most print journalists. Sánchez claims that she and another blogger critical of the regime were abducted by Cuba’s notorious state security agency. They were both stuffed inside a car, where the two pioneer bloggers were verbally abused and physically threatened.

But none of this seemed to deter Sánchez from continuing with her blog. Right after this frightening incident, Sánchez decided to post a detailed blog entry on precisely what happened to her and her colleague. According to the post and reports in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Sánchez was punched in the face by one of the secret police officers and the other state security agent caused the blogger pain by pushing his knee into her chest. According to Sánchez’s account, there were a number of witnesses on the street, but the secret police agents warned them not to intervene, by stating that the bloggers were “counter-revolutionaries” and they had to be dealt with.

Even though Sánchez’s account has now made headlines throughout the world and in some of the largest publications, Cuban authorities have had nothing at all to say about the incident, thus neither confirming nor denying what took place. Sánchez, however, will continue blogging about free speech and a site that attracts an average of one million visits per month is likely to be even better known after this ordeal.