According to Hablemos Press News Agency, their independent journalist, Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, has been transferred to Valle Grande prison after being under arrest at a police station for more than a week.

Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, the agency’s director writes:

Calixto Ramón was arrested by Security of State agents on April 23rd while reporting on an activity conducted by opposition activists. The act was violently repressed by paramilitary brigades who invaded [opposition activist] Damián Prito Blanco’s home and assaulted the participants. The journalist is accused of assault.

The reporter was beaten by the paramilitary brigades and subsequently arrested by Security of State agents. “I’m being charged with assault” —he said on the phone on April 30th—“although previously the authorities charged me with ‘disrespect’”

“The booking officers stated that I hit a policeman in blue [uniform] inside the house. [However] The prosecution is charging me with hitting a Security [of State] agent.”

“While I was covering the activity, I didn’t see any policeman in blue [uniform]. But, those who came in beating us were dressed in civilian clothes, if they were agents, they did not identify themselves as such. And why did they beat us if they said they were ‘the people’ but turned out to be agents?” —added Calixto.

“This is all a sham to disrupt my work as a communicator, and neither the police nor the prosecution can agree on a lie with which to charge me.”

“Apparently this is a new wave [of repression] from the regime to silence those who try to have an [alternative] opinion,” stated Rodolfo Ramírez Cardoso, president of Movimiento Nueva Línea Democrática, and who sheltered Calixto for a long time.