Cuban dictatorship to interrogate EWTN correspondent a second time

CNA Newsroom, Nov 16, 2022 / 11:31 am

The Cuban dictatorship’s National Revolutionary Police once again summoned Adrián Martínez Cádiz, a correspondent for EWTN News, for an “interview” or interrogation Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 3 p.m., without specifying the reasons for the summons.

This is the second time in less than a month that Martínez has to appear before the Cuban police at the Plaza de la Revolución station. On the first occasion, Oct. 21, at the conclusion of the summons he was fined 3,000 pesos (about $125) for criticizing the regime.

At the first summons, Martínez was interrogated by a lieutenant colonel who, according to the correspondent, “treated me very badly, he raised his voice at me in a very bad way, he told me to shut up the times I wanted to explain something,” Martínez lamented.

The officer “threatened several times to put me in jail for my posts on social media. … They allege that I create ‘memes’ against the president, which isn’t true.”

Before being fined, the officer began to fill out an official written warning in order for the journalist to make a commitment to the Cuban state.

“He told me that he was officially warning me that I could be criminally prosecuted if I continue to publish,” the journalist said.

In a recent video sent to EWTN News, Martínez explained that he received the second summons this morning from one of his neighbors and it was dated Nov. 14.

“It’s curious because according to the law the summons should not be left with a neighbor, but with the person or at least with a relative,” he said. The EWTN correspondent pointed out that he lives with his mother and his grandmother and that the latter doesn’t leave the house and could have received the document.

“And of course, that’s very little time in advance,” he said. In general, they give notice “48 hours in advance so that you can plan and be able to attend the summons,” he commented.

Martínez said that if he doesn’t attend the summons he can be fined 20,000 pesos, about $840, or be criminally charged for contempt.

Why would the Cuban dictatorship summon him again?

Martínez explained to EWTN News that “I have no idea what the cause of the summons is and this makes two citations in less than a month. It’s a very short time; I don’t know what the reason will be.”

The correspondent commented that it’s important to take into account that “all the people in Cuba who tell the truth have been attacked and incited to leave the country.”

“That’s why many of those who dissent from the ideas of the revolutionary government have ended up leaving the country. It’s a technique that they usually use when someone irritates them: try by all means to get them to leave the country,” he lamented.

Martínez’s most recent reports have to do with the lack of wheat flour to make Communion hosts in Cuba and that Days of Prayer for young people are spreading throughout the island.

Martínez concluded by asking for prayers.

“I ask you to pray for me and going forward. God can always do more,” he encouraged.

In 2021 Martínez, who is also executive secretary of Youth Ministry in Havana, reported on social media that he had received death threats.

A supporter of the communist regime who accused him of being too critical of the dictatorship pulled alongside him on a motorcycle and told him that if he kept it up like this he could “get stabbed twice.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.