A reporter for an independent news service is awaiting deportation from Cuba‘s capital city. Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias of the Hablemos Press agency is awaiting expulsion from Havana for the ninth time in two years, following a recent crackdown on civic groups and dissident organisations. The journalist was arrested for the fourth time this year on 30 September, and will be deported to his home town of Camagüey. More than 2,500 arrests have been made during the political crackdown, and up to 563 people have been briefly detained or exiled.