January 29, 2004: Amnesty International added four more Cubans to its list of "prisoners of conscience," reinforcing Cuba's status as the country with the highest number of such prisoners in the Western Hemisphere. "At least in terms of prisoners, it's not getting any better in Cuba," Eric Olson, Amnesty's Americas advocacy director, said in a telephone interview. The move brought to 84 the number of "prisoners of conscience" in Cuban jails. That includes all 75 government opponents convicted in summary trials during an island-wide sweep last spring. (The Miami Herald, 29/1/04)
January 27, 2004: An amnesty for 75 Cuban dissidents sentenced to long prison terms in last year's crackdown would help Americans working to end US sanctions against the communist-run island, a representative of a leading American church council visiting Cuba said. "It's an internal matter," the Reverend Fred Morris, Latin America director for the National Council of Churches USA, said of the long sentences given out last year. But, he said, "a gesture of compassion could help" efforts by the council and other groups fighting for an end to the trade embargo and restrictions on American travel to the Caribbean country. Under the leadership of Reverend Bob Edgar, a United Methodist minister, the delegation hoped to meet with Castro and discuss the dissidents' sentences, among other concerns. But, the day before the group was to leave, no meeting had occurred. Edgar late last year sent Castro a letter urging him to "please take advantage of the coming Christmas season to declare an amnesty for those dissidents, either reducing their sentences greatly, or, better yet, simply freeing them as a sign of good will and desire to work toward reconciliation." (AP, 27/1/04)
January 26, 2004: Ten Cuban intellectuals released a letter of support for the government in response to criticism by five Argentine authors who petitioned their Foreign Minister, Rafael Bielsa, to have the Argentine embassy and all other Latin American diplomatic missions in the island open their doors to Cuban dissidents. (Encuentro en la Red, 28/1/04)
January 24, 2004: A statement by several dissidents handed to Orthodox Archbishop Dimitrios of New York-- who traveled to Cuba for Ecumenic Patriarch Bartholomew's visit-- asked the Archbishop to press the Cuban government to free dozens of opposition figures sentenced to lengthy prison terms. "I told him about the situation of the 75 political prisoners in Cuba and that they had to be released," said Miriam Leiva, wife of imprisoned dissident Oscar Espinosa Chepe. "He said that they are praying." (AFP, The Chicago Tribune, 24/1/04)
January 23, 2004: Cuban dissidents have expressed their hope that the visit by Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of Orthodox Christians around the world, will occasion the release of dissident prisoners. It is often during such visits that Castro does make such gestures. They are usually politically motivated. Indeed, during the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1998, 200 prisoners were released, an event that marked a period of relative political liberalisation on the island and brought about improved relations with EU states, amongst others. (WMRC, 23/1/04)
January 22, 2004: Following denunciation by Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), the French Minister of Culture, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, expressed his "firm condemnation" of the physical assault of a reporter at the hands of the security staff during a Cuban art exhibit in Paris. (EFE, 22/1/04)
January 22, 2004: In a letter, five Argentine authors petitioned the Foreign Affairs Ministry to have the Argentine embassy in Havana, and all other Latin American diplomatic missions, open doors to Cuban dissidents. The letter was signed by, Marcos Aguinis, María Sáenz Quesada, Sylvina Walger, Juan José Sebreli, and Fernando Ruiz. (Radio Martí, 22/1/04)
January 21, 2004: In a press statement issued by the State Department, the US government condemned "the continued unfair detention" of political prisoners in Cuba, and demanded to Cuban authorities their release. The document emphasizes the release of 75 independent Cuban journalists, librarians, and human rights defenders, who have been kept in jail since April 2003. But it adds that: "Such deprivation and flagrant abuse of human rights have not been limited to the group of 75. In February, human rights activist Leonardo Bruzon Avila, who is in poor health due to repeated hunger strikes, will soon complete two years in prison without a trial. In March, blind pro-democracy activist Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leyva will also complete two years in prison without a trial. Gonzalez was jailed for protesting the police beating of an independent journalist. Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, who has worked tirelessly to express his commitment to the use of non-violence to achieve change, was arrested in December 2002 for attempting to teach others about international human rights practices." (Europa Press, 22/1/04)
January 20, 2004: Reporters Without Borders demonstrated against the imprisonment of 30 journalists in Cuba, at an art exhibition at a major Paris landmark attended by the Cuban Culture Minister. Demonstrators made their protest at the Great Arch of La Defense as the Cuban minister and the Cuban ambassador to Paris visited the rooftop opening of a major exhibition of contemporary Cuban art. (NetforCuba, 20/1/4)
January 20, 2004: Isabel Ramos Martínez, mother of the political prisoner Arturo Suárez Ramos, who began a fast on December 8 for the freedom of all political prisoners to demand that medical attention be given to her son in prison, shaved her head as part of her protest. (Puente Informativo, 20/1/04)
January 18, 2004: Imprisoned last spring for opposing Cuba's one-party state, Oscar Biscet has spent the first nine months of his 25-year sentence in solitary confinement or with hardened criminals, enduring insufficient food and unsanitary conditions, according to his wife and letters smuggled out of prison. "The characteristics of the cell violate the law," Biscet, 42, wrote in a November letter. "There are no windows. There are only walls. Always in darkness ... The sky can't be seen." Biscet has spent weeks at a time in a small cell, sleeping on a thin mattress and using a hole in the floor as a toilet, said his wife, Elsa Morejon. "I haven't seen my wife and my father in more than four months," he wrote, saying most family visits had been denied. (Chicago Tribune, 18/1/04)
January 13, 2004: Reporters Without Borders has strongly condemned an assault against Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, a journalist who was brutally beaten by prison guards in the provincial Guantánamo prison, eastern Cuba, and urged the authorities to punish his assailants and to protect prisoners from further harm. Arroyo was taken from his cell by three prison guards and dragged to a room where they beat him about the face and body. They also deliberately shut his leg in a door. He told his wife Elsa González Padrón in a telephone call that he was still suffering from the after effects of the attack. "It is the second time in a month that a jailed journalist has been attacked," said Robert Ménard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders. (Notimex, 13/1/04)
January 12, 2004: The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) stated in its semi-annual report, that 2003 was a distressing year due to the "systematic transgressions" against the Cuban people's human rights. Among the most frequent offences against human rights, says the CCDHRN, are related to freedom of expression, information, press, the right to due process, and to protection from arbitrary treatment. "All of this contrasts strongly with the high priority the government of Cuba has placed on the expansion and perfection of the systems of education and basic medical assistance, which correspond to the field of social rights," says the report. (IPS, 12/1/04)
January 12, 2004: A Cuban human rights group said that at least 10 of the island's 315 political prisoners are so ill that Fidel Castro's communist government should let them finish their sentences at home. The worst case is that of economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who has severe cirrhosis, followed by Martha Beatriz Roque, also an economist, who suffers from chronic diabetes, it said. Both have been moved to a military hospital due to their conditions. Many of the jailed dissidents are more than 50 years old and the frail health of some has been aggravated by hunger strikes. Some dissidents have been beaten in jail, the rights commission said in a semi-annual report. Cuba bars International Red Cross officials from visiting its jails. The Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission also called for the release of a blind dissident, Juan Carlos Gonzalez, jailed without trial since March 2002. (Reuters, 12/1/04)
January 11, 2004: A new Cuban domestic opposition group, the self-styled "National Unity Front" (NUF), demanded the release of all Cuban "political prisoners" and that "free, democratic elections" be held. The Front gathers 34 political opposition movements and organizations. (El Nuevo Herald, 11/1/04)
January 10, 2004: Wives and mothers of Cuban dissidents that received harsh prison sentences last year demanded more activism on the part of the Latin American governments with regards to the social and political crisis in the island. Under the title "Message to the Heads of State of the Americas," a score of women wrote a letter to the presidents in the Hemisphere, asking them to consider the human rights situation and lack of democracy under Fidel Castro. (El Nuevo Herald, 10/1/04)
January 3, 2004: Elsa Morejon, wife of the Cuban civic leader, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet Gonzalez, said that her husband is unrecognizable since she last saw him four months ago. "He is so thin, pale and ill looking", "these punishments are destroying him and if he continues where he is he will die…", Morejón added. Cuban prisoner of conscience, Dr. Oscar E. Biscet Gonzalez, who is serving a 25 year prison sentence, continues confined with a common criminal in a cell with no windows or light which he described as a "dungeon", for refusing to stand up to acknowledge the presence of prison guards and officials during the recount of prisoners. His punishment prohibits family visits, food supplies, toiletries, clothing, receiving or sending any correspondence, and going out in the sun. (NetforCuba, 4/1/04)
