Cuban blogger Orlando Luis Pardo reported earlier this week on citizen journalism portal All Voices that award-winning writers Manuel García Verdecia and Rafael Vilches Proenza were fired from their jobs and expelled from the local writers union for improper use of the Internet.

One week after she says she was beaten by Cuban authorities — an act of press repression that has been condemned by Human Rights Watch, the InterAmerican Press Association and the U.S. Department of State — Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez is going on the offensive, using her blog and Twitter account to move from prey to vigilante.

Following the news of the assault on Yoani Sánchez and other bloggers by security forces last Friday in Havana, the United States has decided to intervene. Late on Monday, the Department of State issued the following statement, openly denouncing the Cuban government and promising “inquiries” on the status of the bloggers:

Yoani Sánchez, one of the most notorious voices of Cuban dissidence, said she was kidnapped and beaten last Friday by state security agents. Mediaite spoke with Sánchez, who is resting at home — on medical orders — by phone from Havana last night.

Yoani Sanchez, a Cuban blogger known for her critical online missives about the communist government, was detained and beaten yesterday on her way to a march, CNN is reporting. Sanchez’s website Generation Y gets around 1 million hits per month, and the government says she’s “gone too far,” according to her account of Friday’s kidnapping.