Distributed by The Cuba Free Press Project.

Havana, August 21, 1997, Cuba Press

Journalist Efren Martinez Pulgaron Has Been Detained Indefinetly. By Ana Luisa Lopez Baeza, CubaPress.

Journalist Efren Martinez Pulgaron, who has been under arrest by State Security in Pinar del Rio since August 13th, is under a process of investigation and the length of his stay there can't be determined.

Such is the information which Mrs. Carmen Pulgaron, the mother of the prisoner, has been issued by officer Pedro Linares, during her first allowed visit, this Wednesday.

Mrs. Pulgaron told CubaPress that her son complained of the food rations which he is getting in prison, but that he is in good spirits. "The hunger here is very great", the journalist told his mother.

She was allowed to take some clothing and food to her son during the visit, as well as, some toiletry items.

Martinez Pulgaron has been working as a journalist for CubaPress, covering the news involving religious matters.

In the last few weeks, three other journalists from CubaPress have been arrested by State Security in Pinar del Rio. They are: Odalys Curbelo, Juan Antonio Sanchez, and William Cortez. Reporter Hector Peraza Linares, from Havana Press, is confined to a dungeon in the same building, since June 23rd.