Norberto Muñoz was fired from his job as an agricultural worker in Artemisa and had to hand over his cell phone to the Police.
14ymedio, Havana, July 31, 2024 — Filming a video and uploading it to social networks has cost Norberto Muñoz Palomino a fine of 20,000 pesos, his job and the loss of his cell phone, which has been held for weeks by the Alquízar Police, in the province of Artemisa. The images transmitted by this resident of the community of Pulido, last February, showed a group of people looting a potato field.
In the video, published on Facebook, one can see the long furrows of potatoes belonging to a state company and dozens of area residents filling sacks with potatoes and taking them away. “Man, look at that, people ran into the field, and there is no one to stop them,” says the man posting the video.
Muñoz Palomino also adds that “they are so hungry, not even the special brigade is stopping them,” alluding to the troops of the National Special Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior, also known as “black berets.” The short film was quickly disseminated on social networks, independent news media and channels in South Florida. In a few hours, thousands of Internet users had seen the images.
“Shortly after that I was summoned by the police,” Muñoz Palomino tells 14ymedio. After an interrogation in the Alquízar Police Unit, he was fined 20,000 pesos under Decree Law 370 that allows the authorities to sanction social media users for the opinions they express or the content they disseminate. Th