News · Rights
Police detain reporter Adelth Bonne and release him with a fine and confiscated equipment
The CubaNet contributor was arrested on Monday in Santos Suárez, Havana, and released hours later with a fine under Decree-Law 370, confiscated equipment and fresh threats of prison, according to CubaNet, 14ymedio and Martí Noticias.
Independent journalist Adelth Bonne Gamboa, a contributor to CubaNet, was detained on Monday in Havana by police officers who, according to that outlet, arrested him without presenting any documentation, handcuffed him and put him into patrol car number 519, which left for an unknown destination.
The arrest took place at around 10:30 in the morning, near his home in the Santos Suárez neighbourhood, Diez de Octubre municipality, according to 14ymedio. The officers also assaulted the reporter's partner and tried to snatch the phone she was using to document what was happening. Bonne had spent several days unable to communicate and had left his home looking for an internet connection.
He was released hours later. Martí Noticias reported, citing CubaNet, that the authorities imposed a fine under Decree-Law 370 over his social media posts and confiscated his laptop, his phone, two tripods, his headphones and a microphone. Bonne told CubaNet he was subjected to an interrogation of about 45 minutes and was again threatened with prison.
Cuban journalist José Raúl Gallego, who lives in Mexico, said the equipment was seized 'without giving him any documentation' and that the officers 'threatened him with prison again,' according to 14ymedio. The outlet added that a photograph circulated after his release shows reddish marks around one of his wrists from the pressure of the handcuffs.
The detention was preceded by weeks of summonses and interrogations. On October 20, Bonne appeared before State Security agents at the Aguilera police station, where, according to 14ymedio, they demanded he end his collaboration with CubaNet and threatened to prosecute him for 'propaganda against the constitutional order.' Days later he received another summons for October 28 and announced publicly that he would not attend.
The harassment goes back further: in December 2025 he temporarily suspended his work for CubaNet after threats that reached his mother and other relatives. His case appears in the 2025 annual report of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which documented threats against his life received through Facebook. 14ymedio recalled that the Inter American Press Association recently denounced the use of summonses, surveillance and court proceedings to block journalistic work in Cuba, and called for the release of Henry Constantín, director of La Hora de Cuba, jailed in Camagüey.
Sources: 14ymedio · Cubanet · Martí Noticias
Data updated: 2026-11-02T19:00:00.000Z