Spotlight on Cuba: Crackdown on Dissidents

Chronology of Events

September 29, 2004: Cuban dissident René Montes de Oca Martija,was sentenced to 8 months in jail. Montes de Oca, secretary general of the dissident Partido Pro Derechos Humanos de Cuba, affiliated to the Andrei Sajarov Foundation, was charged with minor contempt of authorities, a minor crime that usually doesn’t imply to remain in prison. (Puente Informativo, 29/9/04)

September 27, 2004: Luis Enrique Ferrer García, a political prisoner who was sentenced to 28 years in jail, initiated a hunger strike. According to Oswaldo Payá, leader of the Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (MCL), Ferrer García stated that he will “continue the strike until the end”, after having received a “sadic treatment” and having been beaten by prison authorities at the Prisión Juvenil of Santa Clara. Ferrer García, 30, who is the youngest of the 75 dissidents sent to prison last year, is determined to go on with the hunger strike, Payá denounced in Havana. The prisoner was the coordinator of the MCL by the time he was sent to jail in April 2003. (AFP, 28/9/04)

September 17, 2004: Former national leaders, some with high international profiles for having piloted their countries out of dictatorship, gathered in Prague with writers and human rights advocates to discuss how best to foment from abroad movement toward democracy in Cuba. Former Czech President Vaclav Havel will be joined by Latin American politicians and intellectuals, among others, at the first meeting of the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, to discuss strategies for a peaceful transition on the island. Also in attendance will be Chile's Patricio Aylwin, his nation's first democratic president after the end of the Pinochet regime in 1990, and Luis Alberto Monge and Luis Alberto Lacalle, former heads of state in Costa Rica and Uruguay, respectively. Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar is also slated to take part in the gathering that is taking place under the auspices of the Czech Foreign Ministry and Senate. (EFE, 16/9/04)

September 16, 2004: Mothers, wives and daughters of 75 imprisoned Cuban dissidents have sent a letter of thanks to the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba (ICDC) which will meet in Prague. The statement of Cuban women recalls that the dissidents are kept under extremely severe conditions which have a negative impact on their health. They suffer from various diseases which are not treated properly in prison. Cuban women in their letter appreciated solidarity and the committee's interest to help liberate those who are guilty only of the love for their country. Most of the signed women are relatives of the political opponents who were imprisoned by the Cuban regime last year. Among the signatories is also the wife of Cuban poet and journalist Raul Rivero, 57, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison and whose health condition is allegedly very poor. One of his books has been published in the Czech Republic these days. (CTK, 16/9/04)

September 16, 2004: During a Parliament session, Dutch Foreign Minister, Bernard Bot, said that Dutch diplomats in Cuba do not have access to the intellectuals imprisoned in Cuban jails. Bot said that, “our Embassy in Havana cannot have access to Cuban dissidents, in spite of the efforts they make to meet them”. The Dutch minister emphasized the importance of the European Union pressures on the Cuban government in order to obtain the liberation of “the 68 intellectuals imprisoned in Cuba for the crime of having opposed current political regime”. (EFE, 16/9/04)

September 15, 2004: A report called "Manifesto for the freedom of the prisoners of conscience in Cuba" presented by former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in Madrid said that Cuba lacks an alibi "with which it can excuse or explain" its political and civil rights abuses. Also on hand for the report's presentation, which will be delivered to the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba at that body's first summit in Prague, were prominent Cuban exile Carlos Alberto Montaner and the president of the Spanish Association Cuba in Transition, Rafael Rubio. In the event, organized by the Fundación para el Análisis y los Estudios Sociales, headed by Aznar, the former president of the Spanish government demanded the Cuban government grant "immediate and unconditional" freedom for all prisoners of conscience. (EFE, 15/9/04)

September 13, 2004: As part of the National Vigil Campaign "Liberty Without Exile for All Political Prisoners", members of the Union Liberty Foundation Movement demanded in Havana the unconditional release for all the political prisoners that are presently serving unjust sentences in prisons in the island. "We are demanding from the Cuban government the unconditional release of all political prisoners confined in more than 200 prisons throughout the island. Guarded by the Cuban Flag during the vigil, upon singing the National Anthem, the dissidents held hands in a chain of prayers at plain view of dozens of citizens passing by who stopped and watched the event. (Puente Informativo, 13/9/04)

September 13, 2004: Oppositionist leader Oswaldo J. Payá Sardiñas sent another urgent statement to the international community denouncing the Cuban regime's desperate attempts to stop the work of the Christian Liberation Movement (MLC) and the Varela Project. Now, they showed no mercy to Adrián Curly Cedeño, member of the MCL, who was sent by a Tribunal to the Psychiatric Hospital San Luis de Sagua as a patient. This abusive and Stalinist style of punishment is a recurrent pattern with members of the Christian Liberation Movement (MLC) and other activists that support the Varela Project. (Puente Informativo, 13/9/04)

September 9, 2004: The wife of political prisoner Oscar Elías Biscet made and urgent appeal to the international community in support of her husband. In an open letter, Elsa Morejón, Biscet's wife, blamed prison authorities for the “acts of cruelty and abuses” her husband has suffered while in jail. ''I feel the urgency to denounce these acts of abuse against him”, she said. “Nothing justifies to have a human being living in a catacomb, sleeping on a cement floor with a thin mattress that is handled to him at night and retired at dawn, with no access to fresh air, nor to his belongings”, Morejón added. (El Nuevo Herald, 10/9/04)

September 4, 2004: A group of dissident organizations and individuals who had been supporting Cuban dissident Bertha Antúnez in her hunger strike have stopped fastening. Waiting for Cuban authorities to perform the petitions she had made of transferring her brother to a prison in their home province, Antúnez, the sister of political prisoner, Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez”, also stopped the hunger a strike she had begun last month . Officials from the Ariza prison in Camagüey, should transfer Bertha’s brother to a prison in Villaclara, the province where the Antúnez live. (Cubanet, 9/9/04)

September 4, 2004: Cuba 's civic movement received the support of six former Costa Rican presidents and some 300 congressional members from 12 Latin American countries, including Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. The group released a letter stating that, “ Cuba is governed at present by the only dictatorship remaining in Latin America. There, the values of freedom are disregarded in the most visible manner”. “In collective and general terms, our region still has not expressed itself in a clearly defined manner regarding this opening to the budding Cuban civic movement. In view of the hope for a peaceful change that emerges from the depths of Cuban reality, Latin American regional organisms and the embassies of our countries in Havana have a moral obligation to respond in a positive manner”, the letter adds. (The Miami Herald, 4/9/04)

September 3, 2004: During a mass at the Catholic temple in Santiago de las Vegas, Havana, liberty for the political prisoners of the Cuban regime was the intention of parishioners payers to the Lord. After the mass concluded, 44 pacific dissidents, members of the Opposition Movement for the New Republic, presided by José Díaz Silva and the Cuban Pro Human Rights Party affiliated to the Andrei Sajarov Foundation led by René Montes de Oca Martija, they all marched throught the streets of Santiago de las Vegas in a pacific demonstration until they arrived at the José Martí Park. Once in the park, they sang the National Anthem and Montes de Oca called for National Reconciliation, peace and love amongst all Cubans, asking also for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners. The State Security watched at all times the pacific demonstration. (Puente Informativo, 3/9/04)

September 2, 2004: Dozens have joined a fast supporting the hunger strike that dissident Berta Antúnez has maintained since August 23. Antúnez told the press that Cuban authorities have given her no other option than the hunger strike. She is demanding that her brother, political prisoner, Jorge Luis Pérez, “Antúnez” be transferred to a prison in his home province. (Radio Martí, 2/9/04)

September 1, 2004: The Coordinator of the Democratic Party November 30 "Frank País", Ada Kaly Márquez, reported from Cuba that seven members of this dissident organization were “forced” to abandon the island, risking their lives, due to the constant persecution they were facing. The Cuban State Security initiated an all search operation in Havana, looking for the seven members of this illegal opposition party. Márquez made an appeal to the Cuban exile community, and to Brothers to the Rescue, for support towards these dissidents. (Puente Informativo, 1/9/04)

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