Yoani Sanchez arrested

Cuba’s best known political blogger and frequent FP contributor Yoani Sanchez was arrested today after traveling to Eastern Cuba. Reuters reports: Sanchez, and husband Reinaldo Escobar, were said to have been detained on Thursday in Bayamo, where officials feared they were going to provoke a "media show" around the trial, according to the reports.[…] She, ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
623238_yoani_0.jpg
623238_yoani_0.jpg

Cuba's best known political blogger and frequent FP contributor Yoani Sanchez was arrested today after traveling to Eastern Cuba. Reuters reports:

Cuba’s best known political blogger and frequent FP contributor Yoani Sanchez was arrested today after traveling to Eastern Cuba. Reuters reports:

Sanchez, and husband Reinaldo Escobar, were said to have been detained on Thursday in Bayamo, where officials feared they were going to provoke a "media show" around the trial, according to the reports.[…]

She, her husband and other dissidents apparently were on their way to Bayamo for the trial of Spaniard Angel Carromero, who is charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter for the July 22 death of prominent dissident Oswaldo Paya and his colleague Harold Cepero.

 

Sanchez was tweeting from the road yesterday and reported being stopped several times by police to fumigate the car for mosquitoes. 

Earlier this year, she was denied permission by authorities to travel abroad — the 19th time she had been turned down. Sanchez wrote late last year about how the government’s unease in the wake of the Arab Spring had made life more difficult for journalists on the island.

Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

More from Foreign Policy

The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.
The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.

America Is a Heartbeat Away From a War It Could Lose

Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.

A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.
A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.

The West’s Incoherent Critique of Israel’s Gaza Strategy

The reality of fighting Hamas in Gaza makes this war terrible one way or another.

Biden dressed in a dark blue suit walks with his head down past a row of alternating U.S. and Israeli flags.
Biden dressed in a dark blue suit walks with his head down past a row of alternating U.S. and Israeli flags.

Biden Owns the Israel-Palestine Conflict Now

In tying Washington to Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.S. president now shares responsibility for the broader conflict’s fate.

U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.
U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.

Taiwan’s Room to Maneuver Shrinks as Biden and Xi Meet

As the latest crisis in the straits wraps up, Taipei is on the back foot.