September 27: Czech Foreign Minister Alexandr Vondra criticised Belarus, Cuba and Myanmar over violation of human rights in his address at the United Nations General Assembly. "It is one of the sad ironies of our time that Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in Myanmar 15 years after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize," Vondra pointed out. He criticised Cuban regime of Fidel Castro for "jailing and harassing members of peaceful democratic opposition in Cuba." (CTK, 27/9/06)
September 26: The Attorney General’s Office overruled a complaint filed by Ms. Amalia Rodríguez for the refusal to free journalist Oscar Mario González from prison. District attorney Francisco J. Fernández, head of the General Directorate of Controls, “overruled the complaint ”. On July 10, Rodríguez, a lawyer, had requested the release of Oscar Mario, who’s been in detention without trial since July 13, 2005. (Cubanet, 26/9/06)
September 26: Cuba has failed to improve its human rights record, a UN expert said, citing censorship, the imprisonment of political activists, and restrictions on rights campaigners as particular concerns. "The situation doesn't seem today to be anything that could be described as improved, and I'm putting it mildly," Christine Chanet told the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council. Cuba immediately slammed the report as libelous, and accused Chanet of double standards, selectivity, and political manipulation. Chanet said that by working with other experts, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, her mission had been able to gather enough information to be able to make recommendations. These include stopping prosecution of opponents of the communist regime, lifting laws on freedom of expression and movement, and allowing rights organizations to enter and work in Cuba. Cuba's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Juan Fernandez Palacios, responded to the report by saying that the greatest contribution Chanet could make to human rights in the future would be to quit her post. Chanet's report prompted strong criticism from the envoys of China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, Belarus, Algeria, and Zimbabwe, all of whom accused the rights mission of double standards and called for the practice country-specific reports to be scrapped.
Only the European Union, the United States and Vietnam thanked Chanet for her report. (AP, 27/9/06)
September 25: The dissident coalition Progressive Arch will invite the UN Human Rights Commission to list groups like the Rapid Response Brigades, created by the Cuban government to suppress opponents, as “terrorist”. Progressive Arch announced that it will bring before the organization “projects and activities against the association of persons— whether sanctioned by State or not— created to systematically and expressly threaten, intimidate, attack and destroy by means of violence and for political purposes”, citizens “who seek peaceful social, economic, political or cultural reforms”. The initiative has been called “Action against Ideological and Political Terrorism against Difference”. (EER, 26/9/06)
September 25: A meeting between a top Spanish official and a group of Cuban dissidents has sparked a crisis in relations between Havana and Madrid, which threatens to undo any positive effects brought about by Spain's Socialist government's policy of dialogue with the Fidel Castro regime. Within a week, Cuba has cancelled two separate meetings with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos and his number two, Bernadino León, after the latter had met Cuban opposition figures in Havana while the city was playing host to the international summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. The meeting with dissidents of various political tendencies took place in the Spanish embassy, but it seems to have been the timing which has most upset the government of Fidel Castro. On September 14, just hours after the meeting of León and opposition figures, the government temporarily headed by Raúl Castro suspended a meeting between the Foreign Ministry's number two and Cuba's European affairs spokesman, Eumelio Caballero. Less than a week later, a scheduled meeting between Moratinos and his Cuban counterpart, Felipe Pérez Roque was also canceled. The two foreign ministers were due to meet during the inauguration of the current session of sittings of the UN's General Assembly in New York. (El País, 25/9/06)
September 19: Cuban dissidents demanded the government of Fidel Castro open-up and respect human rights, and criticized that the Summit of Non-Aligned countries “silenced” the situation on the island. “I do not believe that the Summit has been a success. For us it has been of no use because there has been no discussion of the problems of democracy and freedoms”, said Martha Beatriz Roque, president of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba. Dissident Oswaldo Payá, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, questioned whether the speeches in the Summit, by “justifying and silencing the harsh reality that many of their own peoples suffer, are not an outrageous agreement of the oppression and abuse of human rights of the peoples living under tyrannies”. Progressive Arch, a coalition of social-democratic leanings, urged the government to open up to plurality and respect of human rights, and honour the Presidency of the Movement that the country will hold for the next three years. (AFP, 19/9/06)
September 18: Relatives of political prisoner, Luis Enrique Ferrer García, leader of the Christian Liberation Movement in the Las Tunas province, denounced the harassment they have been suffering since Luis Enrique was sent to Mar Verde prison. His mother, sister, wife and young three-years old daughter Maria Libertad, have experienced difficulties with their visits to the prison because the State Security has threatened all the chauffeurs who rent their cars, so that they will not transport them. Also, arriving at the prison, these women have been seized and made the objects of mockery and humiliation by the guards, who have later placed a policewoman to accompany them throughout the whole visit. While in prison, Luis Enrique has been the object of intimidation by a very dangerous criminal who enjoys easy mobility within the prison and special advantages granted by the prison authorities. Some prisoners have admitted that the guards and the State Security have offered them special benefits if they agree to harass and provoke Luis Enrique, but most of them have refused. Luis Enrique received a 28-year-sentence in jail in April 2003. (Puente Informativo, 18/9/06)
September 18: Reporters Without Borders condemned the detention of Ahmed Rodríguez Albacia, 21, a member of the independent news agency Jóvenes sin Censura, who was arrested by state security agents without any grounds in Havana on September 15. “Rodríguez’s detention raises the possibility of new arrests without trial like those of Oscar Mario González Pérez and Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez in July 2005 and Armando Betancourt in May 2006,” the press freedom organisation said. “Rodríguez and his family have been the target of constant harassment in recent weeks and we call for his immediate release.” Rodríguez was arrested when he went of his own volition to the police station on Dragones street in central Havana, where he lives. On the morning before his arrest, Rodríguez had reported to the Cuban Human Rights Federation (FCDH) that members of the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution and the state security’s Rapid Response Brigades had surrounded his house and had threatened to “smash the heads” of him and his mother. (RWB Press Release, 18/9/06)
September 16: Dissidents Marta Cortizas Jiménez and Eugenio Leal García, members of the Cuban Socialist Democratic Current (CSDC) and of the editorial team of the digital magazine “Consenso” were brutally attacked and threatened with death by regime sympathizers, reported the Progressive Arch coalition in a communiqué. For Progressive Arch, “state terrorism against civil society and human integrity, has expressed itself as political terrorism in this case”. (EER, 19/9/06)
September 16: The Ladies in White, wives and mothers of Cuban political prisoners, marched silently for 45 minutes in Havana, to commemorate 42 months of their relatives’ arrest. “We do not want to disrupt the Summit (of the Non-Aligned Movement), but we had to remember the date”, said one of the participants during the march in the municipality of Centro-Habana, relatively far from where the meeting is taking place. (AFP, 16/9/06)
September 14: The Spanish secretary of state for foreign affairs, Bernardino León, met Cuban dissidents in Havana, where he is attending the XIV Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement of countries (NAM) as a guest. At the Spanish embassy León met separately with Oswaldo Payá, of the Christian Liberation Movement; Miriam Leyva, member of the Ladies in White; Manuel Cuesta Morúa, of the social-democratic Progressive Arch; Marta Beatriz Roque, of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society; and Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, of Cambio Cubano. According to the dissidents, the talks focused on the situation of political prisoners and human rights in Cuba. (EFE, 15/9/06)
September 12: A dog trained by prison officers at the Guanajay penitentiary in Havana attacked and injured Héctor Raúl Valle Hernández, a prisoner of conscience. The incident took place while Valle Hernández was sunbathing in the morning, reported José Miguel Martínez, also an inmate in Guanajay. A German shepherd trained to keep prisoners from escaping and used also by prison authorities to break up fights and other disturbances leaped on the peaceful government opponent tearing his right thigh, said the source. (Cubanet, 21/9/06)
September 11: The Ladies in White requested a meeting with United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, who will attend the XIV Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement of countries (NAM) taking place in Havana. Laura Pollán, spokeswoman for the group, said that they have requested to meet with Annan and other leaders present at the Summit. Pollán, wife of Héctor Maseda, serving 20 years in prison, recalled that they sent some 90 letters to the embassies of NAM member countries so that they would be passed to their respective governments. (EER, 12/9/06)
September 10: The Ladies in White, wives of political prisoners in Cuba, carried out their Sunday march in demand of the freedom of their relatives, challenging a government prohibition on the movement of people in preparation for the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). “If we accept everything they [the government] stipulate, we would then have to accept that our husbands be in prison because they put them there”, said Laura Pollán, a member of the Ladies in White. An official statement had restricted the movement of persons in neighbouring areas to the Summit. (AFP, 11/9/06)
September 7: The wife of political prisoner Francisco Chaviano condemned the “humiliating” treatment she receives when she visits her husband. According to Ana Aguililla Saladrigas, during her last visit, prison authorities told her she had to be searched and to “squat three times without underwear”. “After my complaint and refusal, the second officer in command at the prison told me it was usual procedure”, said Aguililla Saladrigas. Francisco Chaviano has been in jail for more than 12 years of a 15-years sentence. (EER, 8/9/06)
September 1: In an unusual repressive action, over 50 agents of Cuba’s State Security (political police) in twelve vehicles broke into Dr. Darsi Ferrer’s home in Havana. With guns drawn, the agents handcuffed him and took him under arrest. Dr. Ferrer’s wife was away, caring for her ailing mother, and the police ignored his pleas to bring his five-year old son, Dariel, along until his wife could come for him. Instead, they took Dr. Ferrer away shirtless and barefoot, and left the child alone. According to the testimony of Ferrer’s wife, the agents opened the gas main before shutting the door. Neighbors went for the wife and helped her break open a window, finding the child still alive, Ferrer’s wife said. Two hours later, Ferrer was released. But in the afternoon of the same day, he was again detained near the US Interests Section, where he was about to enter for a visit. Dr. Ferrer is the founder of the Juan Bruno Zayas Health and Human Rights Center. On August 9, Ferrer distributed to the press the document “Transition Now”, calling all Cubans to join in peaceful actions against Raul Castro’s succession. (Netfor Cuba, El Nuevo Herald, 2/9/06)
