May 30: Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, a gravely ill dissident Cuban writer, was secretly returned three weeks ago from a Havana military hospital to solitary confinement in Kilo 7, a backwater prison, his mother confirmed. The transfer took place on May 7, Blanca Gonzalez said in a telephone interview from her home in Miami. The move came less than three months after the government of Raul Castro assured the Vatican that there would be ``more openness'' in the treatment of dissidents and critics. News of the transfer was revealed in an e-mail that Bloomberg News received from Martha Beatriz Roque, another prominent Cuban dissident. "This is a horrible crime against humanity,'' Roque wrote from Havana, quoting a source from Kilo 7. "The Cuban government is assassinating journalists. The world must be alerted to these facts.'' Hernandez Gonzalez, 38, is one of 20 Cuban journalists jailed since the "black spring'' mass arrests in March 2003 that sent 75 dissidents to prison for terms of 25 years. A poet and journalist, Hernandez Gonzalez was eventually sent to Kilo 7, a notorious prison on the south shore of the island nation. (Bloomberg News, 30/5/08)
May 30: Exiled Cuban writer and journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner denounced the Cuban regime’s efforts to discredit and intimidate him "through slander and lies." In an opinion article sent to several media, Montaner launched a tirade against Lázaro Barredo, member of the Cuban National Assembly and director of the official Cuban newspaper Granma, for requesting more rigorous punishment for the democrats of the opposition in the island and that Montaner be extradited to Cuba. "I suppose that (Barredo) wants them beaten more fiercely, that they are given longer prison sentences, and that the Ladies in White be treated even more disrespectfully,” said the journalist. As for Barredo’s request for his extradition on the grounds of him being on the run from Cuban justice, Montaner indicated that what the Cuban National Assembly representative claims is only a "half truth." "Almost half a century ago, in May, 1961, when I was 17 years old, I escaped from jail (...) back then I was not fleeing from Cuban justice but the injustice of an absolutely illegal trial, complete with fake evidence and false witnesses." (EFE, 30/5/08)
May 28: Cuban political dissident Oswaldo Paya called on the European Union to put pressure on the government of President Raul Castro to release political prisoners on the island. Paya, who won the 2002 Sakharov freedom of thought award, asked the EU in a letter to press Cuba in a “public and sustained manner” for the liberation of political prisoners on the island. The statement was issued by Paya’s outlawed group, the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL). Paya also called for the EU to support his group’s demands favoring legal changes “so that civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights are respected” in Cuba. The EU imposed sanctions on Cuba after 75 dissidents were arrested in a 2003 crackdown. The sanctions were suspended in 2005, and are up for a review in June. (EUBusiness, 29/5/08)
May 28: A group comprising relatives of 75 Cuban dissidents jailed in the spring of 2003 expressed alarm over supposed plans by Raul Castro's government "to launch a wave of repression" similar to that of five years ago. "Cuban authorities have been planning this intended smear campaign against the Ladies in White and our possible dispatch to prison since March 2003, when we became the voice of the 75," the group said in a statement. The document responded to the government's revelations that US diplomats gave dissidents on the Communist-ruled island several thousands of dollars from a Miami-based foundation linked to an anti-Castro activist Havana denounces as a terrorist. The government directly accused Ladies in White member Laura Pollan of receiving $2,400, information that Pollan herself acknowledged, saying she did not know where the money came from and that it was distributed among 18 women. "Regrettably, the current actions harken back to the maneuvers and provocations on the eve of the Black Spring" of 2003. (EFE, 29/5/08)
May 27: Miriam Leiva, a founder of the Ladies in White organization comprising relatives of the "Group of 75," said in an article submitted to the official press that Lazaro Barredo's initiative at the parliament's Foreign Relations Committee –as reported by official daily Granma-- "is undoubtedly part of the unjust offensive" against her and other government opponents. "It is very contradictory with the recent signing by the government of Cuba of the international pacts on political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights, which contemplate the adaptation of domestic laws, and thus Law 88 should be repealed the the penal code modified," the dissident wrote. "Can it be that the debut of Raul Castro as president of Cuba is a copy of the (2003) campaign of defamation to create conditions for a repression that re-instills fear even in the government and (Communist) party leaders desirous of change?" she said. On the question of the money from the United States, Leiva said that dissidents should determine "the origin of any help in order to accept it, but they can make mistakes out of credulity." "Nevertheless," she said, "it is more than evident that the pretext wielded by Cuban authorities has been meticulously prepared over a long period of time, just as it was done before the repression of March 2003." (EFE, 26/5/08)
May 26: The European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Assistance, Louis Michel, advocated for the normalization of relations between the European Union and Cuba. According to Granma news daily, Michel, who participated in a debate at the venue of the European Parliament in Brussels, insisted on the need to eliminate the sanctions imposed by Europe on Cuba in 2003 and which are currently suspended. The commissioner recalled that, “on principles”, he has always rejected sanctions and he stressed that there are no examples showing positive results when measures of this kind have been implemented. In June, the European Union will revise its position towards the Caribbean nation as it does periodically. (ACN, 27/5/08)
May 26: A Cuban legislator who is also editor of the Communist Party daily Granma proposed at a session of parliament that the authorities make it illegal for dissidents to accept money from foreign governments. Lazaro Barredo asked the Attorney General's Office "to punish those individuals who receive money from a foreign power to subvert internal order," Granma reported. The lawmaker presented his proposal at a meeting of parliament's Foreign Relations Committee, a week after the Cuban government reported that US diplomats were acting as couriers to bring money to the dissidents. Barredo's proposal implies a revision of the 1999 Law for the Protection of National Independence and the Economy. That statute - commonly known as Law 88 or the "gag law" - was applied for the first time against several of the 75 members of the opposition who were sentenced in the spring of 2003 during the biggest wave of repression against dissidents in recent years. (EFE, 26/5/08)
May 26: Cuban police violently broke up a dissidents' meeting, leaving at least two people in need of medical treatment, opposition sources said. At least 30 people were detained briefly after a weekend raid on the home of well-known dissident Jorge Luis "Atunez" Garcia Perez in the central city of Placetas, opposition leader Martha Beatriz Roque said in a communique sent to journalists by fax. Veteran dissident Elizardo Sanchez said he independently confirmed the details of the raid and that all who were detained were later released. At least two people needed medical care, including one man who required a head X-ray, and were later sent home, said Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation. "This is the most violent police action we have seen in many months," he said. (AP, 26/5/08)
May 24: The US diplomatic mission in Cuba called on the island's communist government to use diplomatic channels rather than news conferences to criticize American officials. The US government will not respond to Cuban charges that its top diplomat funneled money to dissidents on the island until Cuba files a formal complaint, according to a statement from the US Interests Section, America's de facto embassy in Havana. Cuba has released e-mails, letters, videos and audio-tapes it claims prove that Michael Parmly, America's top diplomat in Havana, carried funds to activist Martha Beatriz Roque, who allegedly passed them on to other dissidents. Parmly has declined to comment on the charges, despite demands by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. The US government acknowledges it provides ''humanitarian assistance'' to dissidents in Cuba, but has not said specifically whether Parmly hand-carried cash from a Miami-based group that the communist government calls a terrorist organization. (The Miami Herald, 24/5/08)
May 23: Cuba has challenged the US to respond to accusations that its top diplomat on the island passed funds to dissidents. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque repeated allegations that top US envoy Michael Parmly had channelled funds from Miami-based exiles. The US state department said that it had done nothing illegal. Mr Roque also dismissed President George Bush's announcement that US residents would be able to send mobile phones to relatives in Cuba. Cuba has accused Mr Parmly of passing money to leading dissident Martha Beatriz Roque from an exile it accuses of plotting an attempted bombing campaign. Speaking at a press conference in Havana, Mr Perez Roque said that evidence including videos and emails proved that Mr Parmly and others at the US Interests Section in Havana had broken laws in both countries. He said the US had directed actions by what he called mercenary elements aimed at destabilising the country. "We hope the United States (…) takes the pertinent measures to correct the conduct of its diplomats in Cuba," he said. (BBC, 23/5/08)
May 23: Peaceful opposition activist Juan Carlos Bous Batista was arrested at home by State Security officers. Bous Batista, which was later released, informed that no reason was given for his arrest and that he refused to sign a written warning against him. Activist Alberto Suarez Vega was also detained and threatened with prosecution on charges of being a “menace to society.” Both oppositionists are members of the Regla chapter of the Republican Party of Cuba. (Cubanet, 28/5/08)
May 21: Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier expressed Canadian solidarity with the Cuban people. Without naming the Castro regime, Bernier said he hopes recent political developments in Cuba - namely Raul Castro replacing Fidel as president in February - will lead to political and economic changes. Bernier, issued a statement in recognition of May 21st as the Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People: “Canada engages Cuban society through our diplomatic presence which is aimed at helping to lay the groundwork for a Cuba that upholds freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. This is in keeping with our renewed engagement in the Americas”. “Canada continues to monitor developments in Cuba closely, and we are concerned about the plight of political prisoners, especially those suffering from poor health. It is our hope that recent shifts will open the way for the Cuban people to pursue a process of political and economic reform,” added the Minister. (DFAIT Press Release, Canwest, 21,22/5/08)
May 21: Cuba presented on state television what officials said was "smoking-gun" evidence that the island's top American diplomat had on at least three occasions delivered thousands of dollars in cash from an imprisoned Miami exile to dissident Martha Beatriz Roque. The case against Marta Beatriz Roque and Michael Parmly, who heads the US Interests Section in Havana, and dissident Marta Beatriz Roque was televised in two-hour installments over three nights on the "Mesa Redonda" news program. The government cited emails, surveillance video and intercepted phone conversations involving Parmly, Roque and others. The diplomat allegedly made three cash pickups on his way through Miami from Roque's nephew, most recently in March. Parmly, who is scheduled to end his assignment in Cuba in March, left for the United States before the accusations were made. He is to return to the Cuban capital on May 22. Cuba accused Parmly of serving as a mule to illegally ferry private funds intended for subversive activities on the socialist island. The money came from a foundation run by Santiago Alvarez, a businessman and anti-Castro militant convicted of weapons possession and other charges. Alvarez also is the benefactor of reputed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. (Sun Sentinel, 21/5/08)
May 20: When Martha Beatriz Roque uses an Internet cafe in Cuba, not only does the government read all the dissident's electronic missives, but they dust the keyboard for fingerprints. They tap her phone and film her walking, protesting, shopping and even typing. Then they show it all on TV, as proof that the 63-year-old former economist is on the dole of Washington and Miami militants with ties to terrorism. ''Cuba says Santiago Alvarez is a terrorist,'' Roque said. "The only thing he's been charged with is illegal possession of weapons.'' ''Martha is a very brave woman who has been in prison a long time,'' human rights leader Elizardo Sánchez said by phone from Havana. Roque was one of six children born to Spaniards from the Canary Islands. Her father lost his taxi company after Fidel Castro took power in 1959, but despite that, Roque was a firm believer in the revolution, even as her siblings left one by one for Miami. ''I believed in the revolution, yes, yes, yes,'' Roque said this week. "I believed in all their lies.'' She said it was not one single event that made her join the opposition. ''The process is slow and reflective,'' Roque said. "It creates an emptiness inside you. You think about your work, your inspirations, your life. And then realize you were struggling for something that doesn't work. That's truly disappointing.'' (The Miami Herald, 20/5/08)
May 20: Cuban dissidents said it was perfectly legal to receive funds from abroad, including from US groups, and accused the Havana authorities of trying to discredit them. Financial assistance from abroad was "totally and completely legal," Vladimiro Roca, a prominent dissident, told the press. As the leader of Cuba's 1959 revolution, Fidel Castro himself had received money and arms from governments and others outside the country, Roca said. The comments came a day after Cuba accused the head of the US Interest section in Havana, Michael Parmly, of serving as a "common courier" by delivering money to dissidents from an anti-Castro exile in Miami. "The first thing to know about the Cuban government is the absence of scruples with which they act. There are absolutely no scruples," said Roca, a former political prisoner who with Martha Beatriz Roque jointly leads a dissident organization, Agenda for the Transition. A lawyer for the dissidents, Rene Gomez, said the financial support "wasn't something to hide or to be ashamed of, simply because the first thing that the government does is to sack those that are in dissent. "Also, the only way to provide for their needs is aid from compatriots in exile." "The Ladies in White are apolitical. We accept assistance, from the extreme right as well as left, without condition, because our sole objective is the release of political prisoners," Laura Pollan told the press, one of the leaders of a group of spouses and mothers of detainees. (AFP, 20/5/08)
May 20: A Cuban dissident acknowledged receiving $2,400 cash from an anti-Castro group in Miami, but said she doesn't know who brought it to the island. Laura Pollan said she was given the money by fellow political opposition leader Martha Beatriz Roque and split it with eight other dissidents. Pollan said that she did not ask Roque where the money came from, and could not comment on the Cuban government's claims that the top US diplomat in Cuba carried funds from a Miami-based group opposed to Cuba's communist leadership. Roque said she has no comment yet on Pollan's statement. (AP, 20/5/08)
May 19: State security surveillance video showed the dissident accused of taking money from the top US diplomat in Havana cutting short a cell phone conversation because credit on her phone was low. "I'm running out of money on this because I don't have money to buy another [phone] card," dissident Martha Beatriz Roque was telling a contact at the US Interests Section. Her phone credit may have been running out but Cuban officials said Roque was receiving $1,500 a month from Fundacion Rescate Juridico, a nonprofit exile group created by Santiago Alvarez, 66, an exile militant jailed in the United States on weapons charges. Roque did have time to tell the diplomat on the line that CNN had showed up to cover a small demonstration she was staging outside the Justice Ministry. Cuban officials said outgoing Interests Section chief Michael Parmly delivered money from the Miami-based group to Roque and other dissidents. Alvarez is a benefactor and close associate of reputed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Roque, labeled an American mercenary by Cuba, said she would wait until after the installment of a state television program aimed at proving her complicity with the United States. "I'm going to wait until the end of this soap opera to comment," she said. (Sun Sentinel, 19/5/08)
May 19: Cuba accused the United States' top diplomat in Havana of ferrying money from a private anti-Castro exile group in Miami to a dissident in the Cuban capital. Officials disclosed e-mails they said showed Michael Parmly, head of the US Interests Section in Havana, acting as a go-between for at least one payment from a group headed by Santiago Alvarez, a Cuban American jailed in the United States on weapons charges, to Cuban dissident Martha Beatriz Roque. Parmly was "a facilitator of payments, of contacts and remittances from a terrorist based in Miami to counter-revolutionaries in Cuba," Josefina Vidal of the Cuban Foreign Ministry said at a news conference. She described his behavior as "scandalous" and called for the US government to investigate illegal activities at the Interests Section. A diplomat at the Interests Section said, "It is long-standing US policy to provide humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, specifically to provide assistance to families of political prisoners who are treated poorly by their own government. "This assistance has no political purpose, but is intended to address the day-to-day needs of families who are struggling to survive in the current system," the diplomat said. (Reuters, 19/5/08)
May 18: Cuba has documented proof that US officials on the island are delivering private funds to political dissidents in order to undermine the communist government, Cuban officials said. Although Cuba has accused US officials of funneling federal funds to dissidents before -- a charge Washington has repeatedly denied – this accusation is the first to suggest American diplomats are acting as couriers to deliver privately donated cash, outside Washington's auditing oversight. Cuban Foreign Ministry and State Security officials made the accusation in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of a detailed accusation they plan to outline at a news conference on official TV. They gave no further details. An official from the US Interests Section in Havana declined to comment and said authorities at the American mission were unlikely to respond until they had seen a detailed denunciation. (AP, 18/5/08)
May 18: The United States, pushing a new initiative, is seeking to spotlight political prisoners' plight in communist Cuba, US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said. "These are people who in many cases have just disagreed with the regime (…) And (…) the conditions -- they're thrown in dungeons and in some cases, the little compartments where they can't stand up," the Cuban-born US official told CNN, referring to Cuban political prisoners now estimated around 270. "Invariably, they get sick almost immediately and they're denied medical attention. This is brutality at its worst," Gutierrez said, explaining how Washington was observing May 21 as International Day of Solidarity with Cuba. Asked about US economic sanctions that have not undone communist rule in Cuba in more than five decades, Gutierrez, who immigrated with his family as a boy, said: "there is some disagreement about the policy, the embargo; but at least we can all agree on human rights and the plight of political prisoners." (AFP, 18/5/08)
May 18: The General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic called an assembly at the Kilo 7 correctional facility to announce the end of inmate beatings at the hands of prison guards, as well as the corresponding corrective measures to be taken in the event of any such incidents. The information was offered publicly by Lt. Col. Jesus Martínez Otuardo, “a high-ranking Ministry of the Interior officer who also happens to be Kilo 7’s current warden and the main instigator of the cruel and inhuman abuse against the inmates," reported Jorge Alberto Liriano Linares, a member of the Christian Democratic Party and of Presidio Político Pedro Luis Boitel. During the meeting, Modesto Vedeño, a non-political prisoner, asked if anything would be done about "the hundreds of inmates who were sleeping on the floor” as well as the "lack of medical care and supplies." He also asked why there were no measures being taken against the guards who had injured and tortured inmates prior to the new regulations. According to Liriano Linares, Vedeño’s questions went unaddressed and he ended up in solitary confinement. (Cubaencuentro, 18/5/08)
May 12: The accusations of the Cuban government against domestic dissidents have increased in recent weeks in the official media, something that opposition members consider to be a new campaign against them. "I think that there's an offensive by the government and I believe that this is a moment in which there must be flexible positions because here the opposition is peaceful," Miriam Leiva, a founding member of the Ladies in White, a group comprising relatives of 75 dissidents rounded up and jailed in the spring of 2003. "On both sides (Washington and Havana) attitudes and declarations are hardening, and there is also one reality - an election campaign in the US - and it's possible that we are the victims of the electoral plans," Leiva said. Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a member of the "Group of 75" who was released from prision for health reasons, said that "there's a clear campaign" to discredit the dissidents. “What the Cuban government needs to do, instead of looking for scapegoats, is set about resolving the disaster it has," Chepe said. Elizardo Sanchez, of the Cuban Human Rights Commission, said that the accusations are "a recurring, seasonal, cyclical theme," and he emphasized that their presence in the Cuban media "contradicts a little bit the official formal discourse" that the dissidents are "irrelevant." Marta Beatriz Roque, of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society, said that the campaign had its point of origin in an April 21 incident in which 10 of the Ladies in White were forcibly ejected from the Plaza de la Revolucion during a protest to demand the release of political prisoners. "The scandal of the Ladies in White was very great and perhaps now they are preparing some bigger show," said Roque, who participated in the videoconference with Bush. (EFE, 12/5/08)
May 7: US President George W. Bush urged communist Cuba to free political prisoners and dismissed as "cosmetic" social and economic changes Raul Castro has made since becoming president. "Until there is a change of heart, and a change of compassion, and a change of how the Cuban government treats its people, there is no change at all," Bush said in a speech to officials from North and South America. "The regime has made empty gestures at reform, but Cuba is still ruled by the same group that has oppressed the Cuban people for almost half a century. "If Cuba wants to join the community of civilized nations, then Cuban rulers must begin a process of peaceful and democratic change and the first step must be the release of all political prisoners," Bush said. "This is the policy of the United States and it must not change until the people of Cuba are free," he told the 38th Washington Conference of the Americas. (AFP, 8/5/08)
May 6: Reina Laura Tamayo Rangel, a member of The Ladies in White and mother of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, joined a group of peaceful opposition activists in a demonstration outside the Provincial Prison in Holguín, in support of a strike carried out by Zapata Tamayo, in protest against repeated violations of his rights by the prison authorities. Reina Laura and 11 human rights activists were demanding that Orlando be allowed family visitation and food brought in by his relatives. They were also calling for an end to the degrading treatment of the inmates at the hands of the prison guards. The prison warden allowed Reina Laura a few minutes’ talk with her son, and agreed to allow her to visit him soon if the protests were stopped. Zapata Tamayo was sentenced to 18 years in prison last April, 2003. (Cubanet, 12/5/08)
May 5: Young opposition activist Erick Jesus Valdés Álvarez was imprisoned on April 25 at the State Security center in Versailles, Santiago de Cuba. Valdés Álvarez had been summarily convicted in October 2007, of being a potential danger to society and sentenced to 3 years’ correctional labor without internment, for his activism with the Movement Youth for Democracy. It is not known why the sentenced was changed to time in prison. (Cubanet, 5/5/08)
May 5: Former prisoner of conscience, Pedro González Acosta, was detained at the police station of San Juan y Martínez, Pinar del Río, where he was warned that he would sent back to prison should he fail to put a stop to his antigovernment activities. González Acosta, 42, was released on March 14 after serving 2 ½ years in prison, convicted of being a potential danger to society. (Cubanet, 5/5/08)
May 2: Cuban dissident Rigoberto Zamora Rodríguez received a two-year prison sentence by the Municipal Court of Bayamo. He was convicted on charges of failing to acknowledge the authority of Fidel Castro. Four young individuals were detained on January 11 for publicly shouting out antigovernment slogans. However, the only one convicted was Zamora, who will be serving out his sentence at Las Mangas correctional facility, in Granma. (Cubanet, 16/5/08)
