Freedom of Expression
Cuba
25. During 2004, the Office of the Special Rapporteur continued to receive reports of acts of repression and censorship of those who wish to express themselves freely in Cuba. Since its creation, the Office of the Special Rapporteur has noted that Cuba is the only country of the Hemisphere in which one can state categorically that there is no freedom of expression. This characterization still holds this year.
26. Cuba is the only country in the Hemisphere in which there is an evident and clear violation of Principle 1 of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression, which recognizes: “Freedom of expression in all its forms and manifestations is a fundamental and inalienable right of all individuals. Additionally, it is an indispensable requirement for the very existence of a democratic society.” Not having a society open to pluralism in Cuba entails, therefore, a clear and systematic violation of the freedom of expression.
27. The prison conditions of dissidents who were detained and placed on trial in 2003, among them several journalists, continue to be objects of concern to the international community. Several detainees began hunger strikes to protest their conditions of detention,[1] including Léster Téllez Castro,[2] Manuel Vázquez Portal,[3] Normando Hernández González,[4] and Fabio Prieto Llorente.[5]
28. Last year (2004) saw the release[6] of independent journalists Carlos Alberto Domínguez González,[7] Carmelo Díaz,[8] Manuel Vásquez Portal,[9] Raúl Rivero, and Oscar Espinosa Chepe.[10] The release of these persons is positive, but as of the preparation of this report, of the 75 dissidents detained in 2003, 60 remain imprisoned, including 24 journalists, and the risk persisted that those released might go back to prison since they are subject to rules that keep them from expressing themselves freely. These circumstances indicate that the structural reasons for the violation of the freedom of expression persist in Cuba.
PRINCIPLE 5 OF THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (Prior censorship, interference, or direct or indirect pressures)
29. In January, the Office of the Special Rapporteur received information on searches of the homes of journalists and independent libraries in which several books, political pamphlets, and instruments of communication such as radios and fax machines were seized.[11] The agents warned that no information should be put out regarding the searches and seizures.[12]
30. In the course of the year, several communicators were reportedly intimidated with the possibility that they might be targeted by trials similar to those faced by the dissidents detained in 2003. Some journalists were forced to sign letters in which they undertook not to continue their work of disseminating information, under threat of being tried on charges of violating the Law for the Protection of the National Independence and Economy of Cuba.[13] These include Isabel Rey of CubaPress, who was accused of disseminating “enemy propaganda.” Similar pressures were received by Fara Armenteros,[14] director of the news agency Unión de Periodistas y Escritores de Cuba Independientes (UPECI),[15] Héctor Riverón of the agency Libertad en Las Tunas, CubaPress correspondent Jesús Álvarez, Gilberto Figueredo, correspondent of the agency Lux-info-Press,[16] Juan González González, assistant director of the agency Línea Sur Press, and journalist Carlos Serpa Maceira.[17]
31. Some of the wives of the political prisoners detained in 2003, who have spoken out against the detentions and the prison conditions of their family members and husbands, were reportedly subject to repressive acts, such as subpoenas and measures to thwart the meetings of prisoners’ family members.[18]
PRINCIPLE 9 OF THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (Murders, kidnapping, intimidation of and/or threats to social communicators, as well as the material destruction of communications media)
32. The Office of the Special Rapporteur received information on mistreatment of the dissident prisoners which in some cases, as mentioned above, has led some of them to stage hunger strikes. Among those targeted by the assaults and reported to the Office of the Special Rapporteur are Normando Hernández González (director of the Colegio de Periodistas Independientes, who works with CubaNet), Adolfo Fernández Saín and Víctor Rolando Arroyo, who on January 26, 2004, were beaten by an officer at the Kilo 5½ prison, resulting in damage to their health.[19] After the beating, Hernández was confined to a prison cell for 100 days. On September 1, journalist Víctor Rolando Arroyo, sentenced to 26 years in prison, was assaulted by officers at the Guantánamo prison, and was later confined for 15 days to solitary confinement.[20] On October 13, 2004, journalist Juan Carlos Herrera, sentenced to 20 years in prison, was beaten by six prison officers at the Kilo 8 prison in Camagüey, for demanding that his rights be respected in the prison.
PRINCIPLES 10 AND 11 OF THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (Use of defamation laws by public officials, and desacato laws)
33. On April 26, 2004, convictions were handed down against human rights activists and independent journalists accused of desacato for expressions directed against the president of Cuba, resistance, disobedience, and public disorder. The persons convicted were detained on March 4, 2002, when they peacefully protested the beating of journalist Jesús Álvarez Castillo, in the province of Ciego de Ávila. Those sentenced included Juan Carlos González Leiva, sentenced to four years of house arrest; Delio Laureano Requijo Rodríguez, sentenced to two years and six months of prison with release on probation, and Virgilio Mantilla Arango, of the Fundación Cubana de Derechos Humanos, sentenced to seven years of imprisonment. Lázaro Iglesias Estrada and Carlos Brizuela Yera, of the Colegio de Periodistas Independientes of Camagüey, Ana Peláez García, and Odalmis Hernández Márquez, of the Fundación Cubana de Derechos Humanos, were sentenced to three years of imprisonment. Brothers Antonio and Enrique García Morejón, of the Movimiento Cristiano de Liberación, and promoters of the Varela Project,[21] as well as Léster Téllez Castro, of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Avileña, were sentenced to three years and six months in prison.[22]
PRINCIPLE 13 OF THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (Indirect violations of the freedom of expression)
34. Since January 24, 2004, the use of the regular phone network, invoiced in pesos, has been prohibited for connecting to the Internet. Web access is now available only to persons directly authorized by the "person with responsibility of an organ or organization of the central administration." The Cuban government decided this to fight clandestine use of the Internet.[23] In addition, it asked Etecsa, the only Cuban telecommunications operator, to employ “all technical means necessary” to detect and impede access to the Internet by unauthorized persons.[24]
35. Some journalists reported that the authorities had been conditioning the issuance of housing permits or rationing cards to pressure them. Such is the case of independent journalists María Elena Alpízar,[25] Juan Carlos Garcell Pérez,[26] and Richard Roselló, who works with Cubanet and Carta de Cuba.[27]
[1] Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), press release, January 23, 2004, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), ''Periodista preso se declara en huelga de hambre,” May 7, 2004, at www.cpj.org, Reporters without Borders (RSF), May 26, 2004, at www.rsf.org, Reporters without Borders (RSF), “Fabio Prieto Llorente ha puesto fin a su huelga de hambre,” September 4, 2004, at http://www.rsf.fr/Article.php3?id_Article=11235.
[2] On January 12, 2004, independent journalist Léster Téllez Castro, director of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Avileña (APLA), began a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment for almost two years without having been tried.
[3] On April 30, 2004, journalist Manuel Vázquez Portal, one of the independent journalists convicted in April 2003 and sentenced to 18 years in prison, and member of the independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro, declared he was going on a hunger strike to protest his prison conditions.
[4] On May 7, 2004, journalist Normando Hernández González, director of the agency Colegio de Periodistas Independientes de Camagüey (CPIC), and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2003, began a hunger strike to protest his transfer to a cell with common criminals; it ended May 26.
[5] On August 11 2004, journalist Fabio Prieto Llorente declared he was initiating a hunger strike over his conditions of detention; he ended it on September 2.
[6] Reporters without Borders (RSF), June 11, 2004, at www.rsf.org , Reporters without Borders (RSF), June 24, 2004, at www.rsf.org, Reporters without Borders (RSF), June 23, 2004, www.rsf.org , Reporters without Borders, (RSF), November 30, at: http://www.rsf.fr/Article.php3?id_Article=11972, Committee to Protect Journalists, “Liberados el escritor Raúl Rivero y el periodista Oscar Espinosa Chepe,” November 30, 2004, at www.cpj.org.
[7] On June 8, 2004, independent journalist Carlos Alberto Domínguez González, of the agency Cuba Verdad, was released after spending 27 months in prison, having been detained on February 23, 2003, as he was considered guilty of desacato and public disorder. He was imprisoned yet charges were never brought against him.
[8] On June 18, 2004, independent journalist Carmelo Díaz Fernández was released after 15 months in prison after being detained and sentenced in March 2003. He was given extra-penitentiary leave for health reasons; this is the legal equivalent of having one’s residence under surveillance. He is the director of the Agencia de Prensa Sindical Independiente de Cuba (APSIC).
[9] On June 23, 2004, independent journalist Manuel Vásquez Portal was released after being given extra-penitentiary leave for health reasons. This release is conditional and lasts for the time considered necessary. He was detained on March 19, 2003. The Chamber for Crimes against State Security of the People’s Provincial Court of Havana convicted him and sentenced him, on April 4, 2004, to 18 years of prison, pursuant to Law 88, of acts against national independence. He was accused of having published Articles on the website cubanet.org, collaborating with Radio Martí, a radio station broadcast by the U.S. federal government to Cuba, having received transfers in dollars from the United States as payment for his articles, and visiting regularly with officials from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. Vásquez is co-founder of CubaPress, of the Cooperativa de Periodistas Independientes, and he established the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro, a press agency devoted to current literary and cultural affairs.
[10] On November 29 and 30, journalists Raúl Rivero and Oscar Espinosa Chepe, detained during the wave of repression in March 2003, were released, on extra-penitentiary authorization, for health reasons. Espinosa Chepe, 64 years old, was in the hospital of the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, as of September 2004. Rivero, 59 years of age, had been transferred to that same medical center on November 26, 2004. Chepe was warned to refrain from engaging in journalism.
[11] On January 28, 2004, several journalists’ homes were searched by state security agents, including that of José Antonio Reyner, in El Cuabito, where the agents found a journalist’s tape recorder, a Samsung radio, and books, for which a document was drawn up according to which he would be subject to the courts. Also searched was the home of Robert Perera, where the “Mártires del 13 de Marzo” library is located; books were seized. All the books containing political writings, and a fax machine, were taken from the home of Ana María Espinosa Escobedo.
[12] La Voz de Oriente (Cuba), ¨Realiza la seguridad del Estado registros y decomisos a periodistas independientes en Santiago,” January 29, 2004.
[13] Inter-American Press Association, Country-by-Country Reports, Annual Assembly, October 2004, at www.sipiapa.com.
[14] On April 16, she was harassed and threatened by state security agents in Havana. Three individuals stopped her and questioned her about her work as a journalist, and she was warned that she could be placed on trial for her publications.
[15] Committee to Protect Journalists, May 11, 2004, at www.cpj.org.
[16] In July, they were stopped by the police and warned of the possibility of being placed on trial because of the information they put out. See Inter-American Press Association, Country-by-Country Reports, Annual Assembly, October 2004, in www.sipiapa.com.
[17] On July 22, 2004, he was threatened, apparently by a state security agent, who warned him that he would shoot him if he continued disseminating information outside of Cuba. See Inter-American Press Association, Country-by-Country Reports, Annual Assembly, October 2004, at www.sipiapa.com.
[18] On May 22, 2004, journalist María Elena Alpízar was detained by the police in Havana when she was on her way to cover the activities of the so-called “Ladies in White,” as the women with family members in prison are called. Alpízar was sent to Placetas, where she lives. An activist was fined for putting her up in her home. See Inter-American Press Association, Country-by-Country Reports, .Annual Assembly, October 2004, at www.sipiapa.com.
[19] Cubanet (Cuba), February 6, 2004, www.cubanet.org.
[20] Inter-American Press Association, Country-by-Country Reports, Annual Assembly, October 2004, at www.sipiapa.com.
[21] The Varela Project proposes a referendum on the freedom of expression and association, the possibility of establishing companies, the release of all political prisoners, and an amendment to the electoral law. In May 2002, 11,000 signatures had been obtained.
[22] Observatorio para la Protección de los Derechos Humanos, press release, May 5, 2004.
[23] To access the Internet, Cubans are still able to use Internet cafes. Yet it costs US$2.50 for 15 minutes, inaccessible for the vast majority of the population.
[24] Reporters without Borders (RSF), January 15, 2004, at www.rsf.org.
[25] On February 9, 2004, she reported that she was being subjected to a campaign of harassment by state security. In Havana she was not given the ration card that is generally distributed in December upon presentation of the expired card from the previous year, and one’s ID card. She was also required to show her ownership of her residence, a requirement only for those who have changed domicile, even though Alpízar has lived in the same house for almost 35 years. See Cubanet, February 19, 2004.
[26] On March 18, 2004, Garcell Pérez, resident in Sagua de Tánamo, province of Holguín, denounced that he and his family were being stalked, forcing him to leave his mother-in-law’s house on Calle de Moa, in Holguín, since agents from the State Security Department indicated that he was there illegally. See Cubanet (Cuba), March 19, 2004, www.cubanet.org.
[27] In April 2004, he was expelled from a residence for the third time, by the state security political police, who said that he was there illegally. See Cubanet (Cuba), April 13, 2004.