Cuban regime revokes EFE press credentials amidst pro-democracy demonstrations

On November 13, the Cuban regime withdrew the EFE Agency’s press credentials just two days before the Civic March for Change, a protest being organized by the pro-democracy Archipiélago movement.

EFE is an international news agency based in Madrid, founded during the Spanish Civil War on January 3, 1939.

#ULTIMAHORA | Cuba retira las credenciales de prensa a los periodistas de Efe en La Habana pic.twitter.com/OIMEJzw6M5

— EFE Noticias (@EFEnoticias) November 13, 2021

This is the first time that Cuba has made such a draconian decision negatively impacting an agency's news credentials, and “there is no record of this measure having been adopted on another occasion with an international news agency on the island,” EFE stated in a press release.

The EFE team in Cuba, which is made up of three editors, a photographer and a cameraman were urgently summoned by the International Press Center in Havana to inform them of the measure, the duration of which is not known at this time. It may be temporary or permanent.

A month and a half ago, the accreditation of EFE’s editorial coordinator was also revoked.

“Cuban authorities warned the EFE team that they could not carry out their journalistic work from this moment on, and did not want to clarify the exact reasons that have led them to take this decision,” the statement said.