Miami ? The Miami Herald’s Spanish-language sister paper acknowledged that it manipulated two photos in a way that made it appear as if two Cuban police officers were ignoring prostitutes gesturing to a tourist.

The image, which appeared June 25 in El Nuevo Herald, combined two previously published pictures – a 1994 photo of the officers by El Nuevo Herald photographer Roberto Koltun, and a 1998 picture of the women and tourist by John Moore, then a photographer for the Associated Press.

Executive Editor Humberto Castello said the newspaper intended to put the photos side by side as part of a montage. But when the newspaper came out, it looked as if the two photos had been pasted together, Castello said.

AP guidelines prohibit altering or manipulating the content of a photograph.

On Thursday, El Nuevo Herald published a long explanation to readers along with the original photographs.