Cuba releases Political Prisoners (98)
Critical Journalists Not Wanted in Cuba (98)
Gay Club raided in Havana (97)
Cuban Dissidents imprisoned (97)
Cuban Opposition support Zapatistas (96)
This trial was the aftermath of protest actions during the Congress of the Cuban Communist Party held the summer of 1997. At that time, the accused held press conferences for foreign journalists, and they have also called for a boycott of the Cuban elections and criticized the country's one party system. In a separate report, they accused the leadership of the party for not telling the truth about the serious state of the Cuban economy. The four belongs to the dissident group Concilio Cubano. Roca, who is the best known of them, has spent the last 18 months in solitary confinement awaiting trial.
A number of world leaders, including Pope John Paul II, had been pushing for Cuba to release the four. The sentence immediately brought unfavorable reactions. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said he was disappointed, and that he thought his country's relations with Cuba needed to be reviewed. Spanish president Jose Maria Aznar called the case a step backward for human rights and said it could affect plans for an unprecedented visit to Cuba by the king and queen of Spain. A number of countries have said they are considering not attending an Ibero-American Summit scheduled to be held in Havana in November.
In the US, on March 16, Rep. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) asked the Baltimore Orioles to cancel two exhibition baseball games with the Cuban national team; one is scheduled for Havana on March 28 and the other for May 3 in Baltimore. The Cuban government reacted to the criticism by saying that "counterrevolutionaries are an internal matter, without implications for foreign relations." Family members and supporters of the four said they will appeal both the verdict and the sentence.
To prevent demonstrations against the trial, the largest wave of arrest in years was carried through during the weekend preceding the trial's start. More than 30 persons was arrested, while others was put under house arrest. Among the arrested was two journalists from the independent news agency Cuba Press. This news agency are regularly accused of being in league with the CIA. When the trial started the Police blocked off the area outside the court and journalists were kept away, according to the BBC.
Despite the visit of the Pope, and the resumed Christmas celebration, this trial shows that Fidel Castro does not allow political criticism.
Sources: Weekly News Update on the Americas
& Arbetaren (weekly syndicalist paper from Sweden)
The Cuban government announced on Feb. 19, 1998 that it has freed 299 prisoners, including some who had been imprisoned for political reasons, in response to an appeal for clemency issued in January by Pope John Paul II [see below]. The Council of State issued the pardon on Feb. 12, and all the releases took place between Feb. 13 and 14. "They were freed and sent home in less than 24 hours," said Foreign Relations Ministry spokesperson Alejandro Gonzalez at a press conference in Havana. Gonzalez would not give the names of those freed but said that detailed reports had been given to the Vatican. Gonzalez also declined to comment on the possible release of four prominent dissidents imprisoned without formal charges since July 16: Vladimiro Roca, Felix Bonne, Rene Gomez and Martha Beatriz Roque. [El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 2/20/98; Notimex 2/19/98]
Of the Vatican's original list of 302 prisoners, the Cuban government eliminated 106 names of people who had already been released; 20 duplicate names; 5 unclear names; and 11 migration cases. Of the remaining 160 prisoners on the Vatican's list, the Cuban government pardoned and released 75. Another 20 are awaiting a decision, and 65 will not be released for "reasons of security for the country, dangerousness of the convicts and gravity of the crimes." The other 224 prisoners who were released were not on the Vatican's list; they were freed for humanitarian reasons such as age or health, as determined by the government. [Notimex 2/19/98]
Dissident sources have said that they can only confirm the release of 136 people, 64 of whom were imprisoned for political reasons. Gonzalez criticized the press for printing unofficial reports about the release of prisoners: "The foreign press has been speculating a lot in recent days, of course using as its basis unreliable and unofficial sources," an apparent reference to press reports issued by dissidents. [El Nuevo Herald 2/20/98; Notimex 2/19/98] Nearly 20 political prisoners have been brought to trial following the granting of the pardon, according to dissident Elizardo Sanchez, president of the illegal Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN). [Notimex 2/20/98]
On Feb. 20 the US government accused the Cuban government of encouraging the freed prisoners to emigrate. State Department spokesperson James Rubin said in a press conference that the US "always welcomes" news of political prisoners being released, but he expressed reservations in the case of Cuba because "many of those freed have been forced into exile...." Dissident sources in Cuba claimed on Feb. 19 that "an operation is under way in which the [Cuban] authorities are trying to get some 20 political prisoners to leave and go to Canada." The Canadian embassy in Cuba refused to comment on this report. Rubin said that some of the released prisoners have requested information about how to get refugee status and leave the island. [Notimex 2/20/98, Rubin quote retranslated from Spanish]
Meanwhile, some 50 Cubans convicted of crimes in the US have been held for over a year in an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) center in El Paso, Texas, even though they have served out their sentences. They can't be released because they have been ordered deported, but the US won't deport them to Cuba because of its antagonism toward the Cuban government. Last May, 16 Cuban detainees went on hunger strike for more than two weeks to demand their freedom. Eventually they gave up, but a month later, Ita Cisneros, the wife of one of the detainees, held a hunger strike in front of the INS offices in El Paso to demand their release. She gave up the fast after three days when she became too weak and had to be hospitalized. Most of the Cubans being held in El Paso come from Albuquerque, one of the cities that received a large number of immigrants from Cuba following the 1980 exodus from the port of Mariel. Dozens of Cubans are being held in the same situation in other INS detention centers throughout the US, although INS spokespeople consulted by Notimex on Feb. 19 said they didn't know exactly how many. [Notimex 2/19/98]
Feb 12: Cuban Government announces Prisoner Release
On Feb. 12 the Cuban government announced that it will release over 200 prisoners, including "several dozen" from a list of 300 prisoners that Pope John Paul II gave Cuban officials during a visit last month. Cuban Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alejandro Gonzalez said 106 of the prisoners on the Pope's list were no longer in jail and that the rest were being freed after "taking into account the request for clemency" from the Vatican. Although most media referred to the inmates as political prisoners, National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcon denied that Cuba has political prisoners. He said they were people whose activities were instigated and financed by a foreign government, although he did not specify which government. The US government described the announcement of the prisoners' release as inadequate. [Univision TV News 2/12/98; New York Times 2/13/98]
Cuban authorities announced on Feb. 9 that seven Cuban dissidents, six of whom are on hunger strike, had been released from prison on condition that they leave Cuba. However, so far no other country, including the US, has offered to accept them. They began the hunger strike on Oct. 9 of last year; one of the prisoners subsequently ended her fast because she is pregnant. All are currently in San Juan de Dios Hospital receiving medical attention. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/11/98 from AFP]
Not everyone had the same privileges as the US networks. The Cuban government denied visas during the week of Jan. 4 to three Argentine journalists: Mathilde Sanchez of the left-leaning Buenos Aires daily Clarin; Mario Perez Colman of the daily La Nacion; and Rodolfo Pousa of America TV. Cuban authorities explained that La Nacion was barred because in the past its reporters had come into the country on tourist visas; Pousa had done a "tenditious" program about Cuba; and Sanchez had "wounded the sentiments of the Cuban people" with her coverage of the reburial last October of the remains of Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. On Jan. 10 Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz denounced the three journalists as "mercenaries." Argentina's Association for the Defence of Independent Journalism (PERIODISTAS) said that "neither the blocade to which the island of Cuba is subjected nor any other consideration of a political nature justifies barriers or impediments to the free exercise of freedom of expression."
-Weekly Update on the Americas
Maj. Angel Diaz of the National Revolutionary Police announced on Aug. 27 that the police action resulted in several arrests, the confiscation of $2,000 and the closing of the club. According to Diaz, the raid turned up prostitutes, pimps, several minors and a number of foreigners--"a little of everything," as he described it. The only detainees whose names Diaz revealed were Cubans Leonardo Suarez and Guillermo Blanco, identified as the club's owners. The police raid was carried out just three days before a new law was to take effect on Aug. 25 establishing strict penalties for pimping, the corruption of minors, encouraging children to beg for money, and other economic crimes. [El Diario- La Prensa 8/31/97 from AFP, 8/28/97 from combined services]
The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) sent a letter to Rosario Navas, Cuba's ambassador to Spain, on Aug. 27, protesting the raid on El Periquiton. The letter also charged that the day after the raid Cuban police carried out "identity controls" on the Mi Cayito beach, located in a predominantly gay eastern beach area. ILGA, which groups 300 lesbian and gay organizations from 75 countries, also protested in its letter the fact that homosexuality is mentioned in article 303 of the Penal Code, and is punishable with a year in prison if manifested publicly. The letter asked the government "not to paralyze the process of progressive tolerance toward gay meetings and parties that was opening in Cuba." [ED-LP 8/28/97 from EFE (Spanish news agency)]
- Since the 16th of July, four other Cuban dissidents have been imprisoned without trial: Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, Felix Antonio Bonne Carcasses, Rene de Jesus Gomez Manzano and Vladimiro Roca Antunez. The four are authors of a document called "The Fatherland belongs to everyone," critizicing the program of the 1997 Congress of the Cuban Communist Party.
We want to report that Vladimir Roca, coordinator of [Cuban dissident group] Democratic Socialist Current and Rodrguez Lobaina have accepted the invitation from Mexican university students to assist in the Intergalactic Encounter for Humanity and Against Neo-Liberalism, to take place in La Realidad, Chiapas, in July, called by the EZLN.
Atentitively,
Nestor Rodrigues Lobaina, Cuban Youth Network for Democracy
Vladimir Roca, Democratic Socialist Current
Letter to La Jornada, Mexico City, May 22, 1996
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