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the need for caution in travel is nothing new


JDMvW

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“I blinked my eyes

and in an instant,

decades had passed.”

― John Mark Green

And it’s precisely because decades have passed that most travelers rely on cell phones for their messages rather than hotel switchboard people. That is, unless they drive up to the hotel in their horse and buggy, whereby a good ol’ Western Union telegram might just be waiting. STOP. :)

There’s always something new under the sun.
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I have been arrest by the Cuban police in 1995 along the seaside main road and brought to Guantanomo (Cuban side, thank god) and kept there for 2 hours waiting for the "tourist police" investigate on me.

 

My crime? I had rented a private driver to bring from Santiago de Cuba until Baracao along the seaside. I asked regularly my driver to stop in order to get out of the car and take pictures in the middle of nowhere, like very poor children playing in a rather lamentable environment. Perfect for B&W photography.

 

Until a policer coming from nowhere, stopped the car and opened the back door of the car where my professional photo material was. How did he know?

 

Well, like in former east germany, people saw us and couldn't understand that a guy was taking pictures where there was nothing to see: no pretty sunset, no pretty lady, no sexy bars...

 

When the tourist police finnaly arrived, I got the handcuffs and there we went to the Guantanamo city police station for tourists. A 3 star colonel assured the brutal questionning for 2 hours (!) and at a certain point, I thought they would put me in jail because I kept telling them the same: no, I am not a spy, just a tourist taking pictures. "who are your working for" etc. Since I carried a heavy 80-200 mm zoom lens, the colonel ordered to open it claiming it must contain drugs !!

 

To make the long story short, the questionning was terrible but finally they didn't open the zoom and let me leave the place. What a relief!

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During my sojourn in Argentina back in '81-'83, I was warned not to take photos of anything or anyone that had any association whatsoever with the national government or police/military. There were apocryphal stories of people, particularly foreigners, who were detained for taking pictures of apartment buildings where government officials lived. (Who would know?) Any foreigner with a "fancy" camera and lens was at risk of being construed as a spy, or at least as having nefarious intentions against the military junta.
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"take pictures in the middle of nowhere, like very poor children playing in a rather lamentable environment" jeane

 

Sort of like taking photos of beggars..

 

Greece, the cradle of Democracy, photographers were arrested for taking photos in a similar situation. It took the influence/power, of the UK government, to release them from a long term prison sentence.

 

Not just questions and a telling off.

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  • 1 year later...
I have been arrest by the Cuban police in 1995 along the seaside main road and brought to Guantanomo (Cuban side, thank god) and kept there for 2 hours waiting for the "tourist police" investigate on me.

Damn, my friend was in a similar situation, though not in Cuba and it was in 2000 (or 2001??). It's really scary that some people think only about power, but not responsibilities. I heard, there's quite a lot of organizations like AAAPPP that help people who faced police abuse. It's such a pity he and you hadn't such an opportunity when you were in trouble.

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