Spotlight on Cuba: Crackdown on Dissidents

Chronology of Events

May 27, 2004: Reporters Without Borders is urging the heads of state of the 58 countries attending the EU-Latin America and Caribbean summit in Guadalajara, Mexico to press the Cuban delegation for the release of journalists jailed in Cuba. (Reporters Without Borders Press Release, 27/5/04)

May 25, 2004: One of Cuba's best-known dissidents still at liberty, Oswaldo Paya, announced the start of a "National Dialogue" involving all his compatriots and aimed at drafting a peaceful "transition program" for the Communist-ruled island. Paya, leader of the outlawed Liberation Christian Movement, or MCL, released a statement in Havana explaining that the process is based on a working document he released several months ago. "All Cubans without exception may take part in this dialogue, whether or not they live on the island and whether or not they support or are members of the government, and regardless of political membership, religious affiliation, experience, age and social or economic status," the opposition leader said. (EFE, 25/5/04)

May 21, 2004: Two peaceful activists from the Democracy Movement in Santo Domingo, Villa Clara province, were arrested in the city of Santa Clara. Police authorities occupied the documents that Diolexis Orestes Rodríguez Hurtado and David Díaz-Oliver Delgado, were carrying, after attending a meeting of their dissident organization. (Cubanet, 25/5/04)

May 25, 2004: Amnesty International (AI) expressed concern in its annual report over the health of many prisoners of conscience in Cuba, where the organization found the human rights situation deteriorated significantly in 2003. In its 2004 report, issued simultaneously in London and Madrid, AI noted that in mid-March of 2003, Cuban authorities unleashed an "unprecedented wave of repression" against dissidents with the arrests of 75 people. According to AI, the 75 activists "were arrested," tried without due process and sentenced to up to 28 years in prison, leading to an upsurge in "criticism (of the Fidel Castro regime) by the international community." (EFE, 25/4/04)

May 20, 2004: A group of 124 legislators presented a petition to the European Union's highest bodies to send a delegation to visit Cuban jails "to guarantee that prisoners' rights are respected," officials said. The group's leader, Italian Eurodeputy Maurizio Turco, said the petition was delivered to both the European Commission and Council of Ministers out of concern for the many people convicted last year who are "without international human rights guarantees." Among the document's signers were Spaniards Fernando Fernandez, Concepcio Ferrer, Manuel Perez Alvarez, Javier Pomes and Rosa Diez. The text notes that, "since October 1945, Cuba is a member of United Nations and is therefore subject to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights." (AFP, 20/5/04)

May 19, 2004: The United States condemned Cuba's sentencing of three dissidents to three years in prison, more than one year after they were arrested for studying human rights in a Havana home. Activists Orlando Zapata, Raul Arencibia and Virgilio Marante, who were arrested in December 2002, were charged with "public disorder, disobedience and resisting authority." They each received the maximum of three years in jail after a one-day trial. "The real, quote-unquote, 'crime' was to study the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at a home in Havana over a year ago. And in the year since that, I would say, innocent gathering, they've been awaiting trial," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. (AFP, 19/5/04)

May 19, 2004: Cuban political prisoners Diosdado González Marrero, José Daniel Ferrer García and Leonel Grave de Peralta have initiated a hunger strike in Kilo 5 prison, Pinar del Río province. The political prisoners began the strike in solidarity with dissident imprisoned Normando Hernández González, who was beaten and sent back to jail together with the prisoner population. According to Directorio Democrático Cubano, an organization based in Miami, Hernández González, an independent journalist sentenced to 25 years in jail, went on hunger strike in protest for abuses perpetrated by the prison's authorities. (Encuentro en la Red, 19/5/04)

May 18, 2004: Three Cuban dissidents who participated in a meeting to discuss human rights were sentenced to three years each in prison, a local human rights group said. Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Raul Arencibia Fajardo and Virgilio Marante Guelmes were arrested December 6 of 2002 while meeting in a private home in Havana to study the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They were convicted in a one-day trial of contempt for authority, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, said Elizardo Sanchez, the head of the independent Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. (CNN, 18/5/04)

May 17, 2004: United States denounced that Cuba's human rights record worsened during 2003. In its new Report 2003-2004, Supporting Human Rights and Democracy, the US Department of State affirms that the Cuban government "continued to commit numerous serious abuses" (Notimex, 17/5/04)

May 13, 2004: The Irish Presidency of the European Union issued a Declaration on the continuity of violations of human rights in Cuba. The European Union is "deeply concerned at the recent trials and sentencing of a further group of 13 Cuban human rights activists and journalists, all of whom were arrested while peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, opinion, association and assembly", the official statement says. (EU Press Release, 13/5/04)

May 10, 2004: The European community has been urged to inspect the conditions of Cuban prisons, where 75 Cuban dissidents are being held after they were arbitrarily arrested in March 2003 and sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years. In a statement, 124 members of the European Parliament said they are calling for the "urgent dispatch" of a mission to Cuba, adding that the Communist-ruled island is a member of the United Nations and is therefore required to respect the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights regarding the legal rights of those accused of crimes. The European Parliament, the legislative branch of the European Union, also adopted a resolution calling on the regime of Cuban dictato Fidel Castro to release the political prisoners arrested in March 2003. ( Washington File, 11/5/04)

May 11, 2004: A prominent Cuban human rights activist said that the island's prison system has grown dramatically since Fidel Castro's government came to power in 1959. Elizardo Sanchez of the independent Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation presented what he said was the first fairly detailed study of the evolution of the prison system under communism. Sanchez displayed side-by-side maps of the prison system in 1959 and today: the first a scattering of 14 dots on the map of Cuba, the second a constellation of what he said were 200 prisons and detention camps that he said constitute "a tropical gulag." Sanchez said Cuba had about 4,000 prisoners in 1956 and about 100,000 today -- a figure similar to that used by some international human rights groups. He acknowledged that the figures were not precise, but said the government "has exact information about the total number of people now imprisoned in our country" and he urged officials to make it public. (AP, 11/5/04)

May 10, 2004: The Cuban poet and political prisoner Manuel Vázquez Portal declared himself in hunger strike after he learned about the limitations the Boniatico penitentiary authorities put to the amount of food and other goods he could receive. Vázquez Portal has been in solitary confinement since February in a dark, filthy, rat-infested cell, according to his wife, Yolanda Huerga Cedeño. Vazquez Portal was one of the 75 Cuban dissidents incarcerated and condemned to a long term in prison for expressing ideas different to the Cuban government. (NetforCuba, 10/5/04)

May 9, 2004: Félix Gerardo Vega Ruiz, a political prisoner serving a 7 year sentence at a prison in Guanajay, Pinar del Río perovince, was stabbed by common prisoners. Vega Ruiz was stabbed while he was making a telephone call, because prison authorities had canceled his family visit. Xiomara Ruiz, mother of the political prisoner sent an urgent appeal to the international community in support of the physical integrity of her son and of all political prisoners. Vega Ruiz is a member of the Cuban Pro Human Rights Party, affiliated to the Andrei Sajarov Foundation. (Puente Informativo, 9/5/04)

May 3, 2004: US and European diplomats visited the home of jailed Cuban reporter Raul Rivero, offering support to relatives of the dissident and others put in prison after a government crackdown on the opposition last year, Rivero's wife said. James Cason, chief of the US Interests Section in Havana, and officials from half a dozen European countries arrived together on the same day Rivero was awarded a press freedom prize in Belgrade, Serbia- Montenegro. The diplomats said they lamented the imprisonment of all the activists and called for their immediate release, according to Blanca Reyes, Rivero's wife. (CNN, 3/5/04)

May 3, 2004: Cuba has the dubious distinction of being the world's biggest jailer of journalists. Of 130 journalists in jail around the world, according to Reporters Without Borders, the largest number -- 27 -- were imprisoned last year as part of a crackdown on dissent by the regime of Fidel Castro. To draw attention to what it claims are Castro's human rights violations, Reporters Without Borders has started a poster campaign to get tourists to think about what lies behind promotional images of the country's sun and sand. The poster shows a young woman on a beach wearing a T-shirt that says " Cuba Si, Castro No." ( Vancouver Sun, 3/4/04)

May 3, 2004: Media in conflict areas and in countries in transition is the focus of the World Press Freedom Day, which is celebrated worldwide to highlight the importance of press freedom and its crucial importance for democracy. In addition to a two day international conference "Support to Media in Violent Conflict and in Countries in Transition", UNESCO's ceremonies in Belgrade will include the award ceremony of the 2004 Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to the jailed Cuban journalist and poet Raúl Rivero Castañeda. (UNESCO Press Release, 3/5/04)

May 3, 2004: Mexico has pulled its ambassador from Havana and accused Cuba of interfering in its internal affairs as bitterness over Mexico's close relations with the United States comes to a head. In his May Day speech, Fidel Castro severely criticized Mexico's stance at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva towards Cuba, saying that the prestige Mexico once gained in Latin America and throughout the world for its foreign policies had "turned to ashes" as it began toeing the line for the United States. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez indicated that Castro's remarks were unacceptable. " Mexico does not and will not tolerate under any circumstance any foreign government trying to affect our decisions on foreign or domestic policy," Derbez told a news conference. Mexico asked Cuba to pull its envoy out of Mexico City within 48 hours, he said. Mexico's Interior Minister Santiago Creel also said two members of the Cuban Communist Party's central committee, José Antonio Arbesú and Pedro Lobaina, had been "carrying out activities incompatible with their status" in Mexico. Creel added that the pair had dabbled in "affairs which should be dealt with by diplomatic channels in the relevant institutions," suggesting they had become involved in Mexican politics. The pair spent several days in Mexico in April and entered the country on diplomatic passports, he said. He said Mexico had declared Orlando Silva, a diplomat at the Cuban Embassy, "persona non grata," meaning he had to leave the country immediately. A spokesman for the Cuban government said Havana had no immediate comment on the Mexican decision. (Reuters, La Jornada, AP, 3/5/04)

May 2, 2004: The jailed Cuban journalist, Raúl Rivero Castaneda, was awarded the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize. The prominent journalist and poet, who was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment last year, was awarded the prize for his "long-standing commitment to independent reporting - the hallmark of professional journalism". Imprisoned along with 25 other journalists in March 2003, Mr Rivero was tried under Article 91 of the penal code, for "undermining the independence or territorial integrity of the State". He was said to have written biased articles and to have collaborated" with the United States. Chairman of the international jury, which recommended he receive the $25,000 award, Jamaica's Mr Oliver Clarke of Gleaner Co Ltd, said he hoped the international attention would encourage the Cuban authorities "to respect individuals' basic human rights to express their views freely". (Irish Times, 5/4/04)

May 2, 2004: Peru withdrew its envoy to Havana after harsh criticism from Fidel Castro at a May Day speech. Castro severely criticized Mexico's stance at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva towards Cuba, saying Peru was an example of the "wretchedness and dependency" left by neo-liberal economic policies. He slammed unpopular President Alejandro Toledo as a man who "does not and cannot direct anything." A Foreign Ministry statement in Lima said Peru rejected Castro's "offensive" comments and was downgrading its diplomatic representation to a business attache. It is the second time Toledo's government has pulled out its envoy. (Reuters, Europa Press, 3/5/04)

May 1, 2004: During his May Day speech in Havana, Fidel Castro referred to the recent vote at the UN Human Rights Commission. Castro pointed out that the ten abstentions and 20 votes opposed to the US-orchestrated resolution constituted a convincing defeat of the empire, despite Washington's attempts to blackmail and pressure countries to vote in favor of the resolution. Departing occasionally from his prepared speech, the Cuban leader commented about the European Union's close ties with the United States and the EU's adoption of Washington's policy of hostility toward Cuba. He reiterated that " Cuba will not bow down before the dictates of the old colonial powers of Europe". (Radio Habana Cuba, 1/5/04)

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