US urges Cuba gov't to free journalist

WASHINGTON, April 28, CMC – The United States government has urged Cuba to free a former Granma newspaper reporter who was sented to 14-years in prison after he wrote about the mismanagement of a government project .



The US Department of State said José Antonio Torres was the correspondent for Granma, the official voice of the Communist Party of Cuba, in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.



State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Torres was arrested in early 2011 after he published a report on the mismanagement of a public works project, and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.



“The United States calls on the government of Cuba to release him,” said Ventrell, referring to the Torres case during a briefing as part of the State Department’s “Free the Press Campaign,” which is spotlighting one case per day in the lead-up to World Press Freedom Day on May 3.



“Journalists are being silenced around the world. In too many places, they are imprisoned, attacked, intimidated, disappeared, exiled or murdered for trying to report the news or exercise their freedom of expression,” he added.



US officials said Torres’ 5,000-word report, published in July 2010, detailed the alleged mistakes in the Cuban government’s construction of a critically needed aqueduct for the province of Santiago de Cuba.



Torres also wrote about the many alleged problems with the Alba-1 fiber optic cable from Venezuela.



Although both projects were supervised by Vice President Ramiro Valdés, one of Cuba’s most powerful officials, Torres never pointed a finger directly at Valdés,.



Cuban President Raúl Castro had praised the report and added a post script to the version published by Granma, describing it as an example of the kind of transparent and critical reporting the country needed.



But Torres was arrested in February of 2011 and tried that June. Several Ministry of Communications officials were arrested later on corruption charges apparently linked to the Alba-1 cable.