Mexico City, Mexico
September 29 to October 3, 2006
Camino Real Hotel
Reports and Resolutions
CUBA
Journalism is at an unprecedented crossroads in contemporary history. For
the first time after 47 years of absolute control, Fidel Castro is not the
nominal leader of Cuba.
The temporary transfer of power from Fidel Castro to his brother, Gen. Raul
Castro, because of an acute health crisis, so far as brought no sign of
change in journalism and freedom of expression. Acts of repression against
independent journalists, mistreatment of jailed reporters and very strict
government surveillance limiting the people's access to alternative sources
of information are continuing,
Government propaganda has escalated wildly to unheard of levels of
triumphalism and censorship, and the number of journalists in jail has
risen
to 26. Coercion against the movement of independent journalists has not
ended, from police warnings, temporary detentions, searches on the streets,
evictions and seizures of personal possessions to flagrant violations of
the
right to information and orchestrated government persecution against
clandestine access to foreign television stations, especially from the
United States.
The independent journalists who are in prison for exercising their right to
press freedom are: Ricardo González Alfonso, Víctor Rolando Arroyo,
Normando Hernández González, Julio César Gálvez, Adolfo Fernández Sainz,
Omar Rodríguez Saludes, Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, Mijaíl Barzaga Lugo, Pedro
Argüelles Morán, Pablo Pacheco Ávila, Alejandro González Raga, Alfredo
Pulido López, Fabio Prieto Llorente, Iván Hernández Carrillo, José Luis
García Paneque, Juan Carlos Herrera, Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, José Ubaldo
Izquierdo, Omar Ruiz Hernández, José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, Lester Luis
González Pentón, Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, Armando Betancourt, Alberto Gil
Triay, Odelín Alfonso and Oscar Mario González.
After being sentenced to seven months in prison, Lamasiel Gutiérrez Romero,
37, the only female journalist who remained behind bars was released just
hours after the IAPA meeting in March. She was freed on condition that she
would give up her profession, but she is still sending reports.
Santiago Du Bouchet, director of Habana Press agency was also freed
August 5
after serving one year and seven days in jail for the alleged crime of
resistance.
The situation of journalist Oscar Mario González is alarming. He has
been in
jail since July 22, 2005 in a Havana prison without being formally charged
and without bail. González, 62, was arrested near his house on suspicion
that he was going to an anti-government protest in front of a French
diplomatic site. He could be accused of violating the 1999 Law for the
Protection of Cuba's National Security and Economy (Law 88) which was used
to sentence dissidents and journalists to long prison terms in the
spring of
2003. The authorities rejected an appeal for him to be released last week,
despite his health problems.
On June 5, Armando Betancourt of the Nueva Prensa Cubana agency was
arrested
and he is still being held on charges of disorderly conduct. Betancourt was
intercepted by the Camagüey police when he was reporting on an eviction.
On September 16, the political police arrested Odelín Alfonso, contributor
to the Cubanet agency at his home in Havana. Allfonso had been detained
last
May and he was warned that he would be charged if he did not stop acting as
a reporter.
The government is still calling for intimidation of the journalists of the
so-called Cause of the 75 who have been given special release from jail for
health reasons. Special release is a clause based on Decree Law 62 of 1987
which allows for a sentence to be completed under house arrest. It does not
provide for the sentence to be expunged and leaves open the possibility
that
the person benefiting from it may return to jail if the authorities decide
that he or she is not complying with the rules of "good conduct."
Among those granted special release, Jorge Olivera, sentenced to 18
years in
jail, and Oscar Espinosa Chepe, sentenced to 20, have refugee visas to
go to
the United States with their families, but the government had not given
them
exit permits. Two other members of this group, Carmelo Díaz Fernández and
Edel José García also have U.S. visa and are waiting for permission to
travel. They all suffer from various ailments, and most are elderly.
Not only do the authorities summon them to the courts to give them
"rules of
social conduct" and restrictions on travel outside their localities, but
they are also harassed with searches and threats by pro-government
organizations in their neighborhoods.
On September 27, police inspectors made a through search of the home of
Díaz
Fernández on the pretext of finding a parabolic antenna to receive foreign
television transmissions. The search was conducted without a warrant.
The journalist and psychologist Guillermo Fariñas decided to end his hunger
strike to demand free access to the Internet on August 31, exactly seven
months after beginning the protest. It sparked international interest
because of the government's prohibitions concerning the Internet. Fariñas
was fed intravenously, and was diagnosed in critical condition during
several months of the fast. He is recuperating from kidney and heart
problems in the city of Santa Clara, Villaclara, and has promised to
continue his demands using other peaceful methods.
Use of the Internet is limited to central government agencies, educational
and cultural institutions and foreigners who subscribe to the service in
hard currency. No Cuban can get free access to the Web, even paying in hard
currency. The government admits that if has "Internet regulations" and that
it blocks pages that it says "harm the country's sovereignty" because they
belong to "counterrevolutionary, subversive and terrorist organizations."
The government blames the United States for blocking the connection to an
underwater fiber optic cable which would increase broadband connections
possible and reduce the cost of access to the Internet on the island.
The journalists who are still in jail serving terms of up to 27 years
endure
inhuman conditions. Eighteen have serious health problems, such as chronic
ailments and illnesses contracted in jail. The Cuban government has refused
to grant them special release. There is also one handicapped man, Miguel
Galván Gutiérrez serving a 26-year term.
On August 29, journalist Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, who has held several
hunger strikes in prison, was attacked by two guards at Kilo 8 jail in
Camagüey. Herrera Acosta, sentenced to 20 years in the Cause of 75, was
injured in an eye during the beating and later was dragged through the
corridors of the prison. He had protested and demanded his right to family
telephone calls, which have routinely been denied.
On September 13, journalist Alberto Gil Triay began a hunger strike in the
Valle Grande jail west of Havana. Gil Triay, who was arrested last
November,
has suffered several heart attacks while detained. He was tried on June 22
on charges of "subversive propaganda," and could be sentenced to seven
years
in prison.
The drive to prevent the spread of clandestine satellite television
signals,
mainly in Havana, was ratcheted up several notches. Raids on neighborhoods
to find signal redistribution sites, dismantle the networks and destroy the
antennas are more and more frequent
On August 10, the official press issued harsh warnings against the black
market in parabolic antennas on the island. The newspaper Granma stressed
that receiving satellite signals without authorization is not just a
violation of national and international laws, but it offers "fertile
terrain
for those who would destroy the spirit of the revolution."
The official warning came after TV Marti, a U:S. government radio station
directed at a Cuban audience, decided to expand its broadcasts to six
days a
week. They are transmitted from an airplane equipped with special
technology
to prevent the jamming of the signal from the island.
TV Martí is not yet received regularly in Cuba. However, it is estimated
that about 30,000 Cubans pay for clandestine satellite service as an
alternative to state television for information and entertainment. The
government television is characterized by a heavy load of political
propaganda promoting the so-called Battle of Ideas. Satellite and cable
television is restricted to hotels and foreign residents.
Government control over information has clearly intensified since Fidel
Castro's illness and transfer of power. The leader's condition has been
officially declared a "state secret," and authorities have rejected
hundreds
of requests from foreign journalists to travel to Cuba when they heard the
news. Several foreign journalists who had entered the country with tourist
visas were expelled.
On May 23, Armando Betancourt Reina, correspondent of Nueva Prensa Cubana
agency, was detained in a neighborhood in Camagüey where residents had
invited him to cover a violent police raid and eviction. It began on May
21,
and residents of the area were arrested. Betancourt was transferred to the
State Security headquarters in Camagüey, more than 500 kilometers east of
Havana and he was charged with disorderly conduct.
On April 23, Roberto Santana Rodríguez, an independent contributor to
Cubanet, was visited at his home by the police chief, a member of the
Communist Party, the local coordinator of the Committee for the Defense of
the Revolution and a member of the Veterans Association. On that day the
journalist had planned to participate in a teleconference at the U.S.
Interests Section. State Security agents had approached Santana on February
13 and April 7. They told him that if he did not to give up his
journalistic
activity they would charge him under Law 88 with a possible sentence of up
to 20 years in prison. They have also conducted a campaign to discredit him.
On August 18, journalist Carlos Serpa Maceira, director of the bureau of
Prensa Puente Informativo Cuba Miami and of Agencia Lux Info Press, was
approached by officers of the National Police who searched his work
briefcase and identification, took him to the Marianao station in Havana
and
held him for seven hours saying that he did not have the documents required
to move about the capital. Serpa said he had been warned and
interrogated by
two State Security officers one of whom warned him that he would be fined
3,000 pesos for violating decree law 217 of the Council of State because he
was in the capital city without an official residence permit.
Serpa Maceria had reported in May that his family living in Isla de Pinos,
where he is from, had been subjected to reprisals by the government because
of his work as a journalist. He said that for several weeks electricity has
been cut off in their house early in the morning but not at other houses.
In the middle of August, Diana Daniels, president of IAPA, and Gonzalo
Marroquín, president of the Committee on Freedom of Press and Information,
asked members of the organization to participate in an editorial
campaign to
demand the release of independent journalists imprisoned in Cuba for crimes
of conscience.
In August the news of the temporary handover of power from Fidel Castro to
his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro, sparked interest in the
international press. But the lack of information about it was obvious, and
it was even worse for the independent press in the country. On August 2,
Cuban authorities refused to allow six foreign journalists to enter the
country and made it more difficult to obtain a press visa. The journalists
were interrogated by agents of the Interior Ministry and required to turn
back. They were told that they did not have the work visa needed to
practice
journalism in Cuba. International organizations and media outlets asked
Cuban authorities for unrestricted access for foreign journalists to report
on the situation.
On September 4, Mirta Wong, wife of jailed independent journalist Oscar
Mario González, said that when she visited him in prison she observed that
his health had declined and prison authorities had not done anything.
González has been plagued with a cough for six months and has hypertension,
cervical arthritis, chronic arthritis and a urinary tract infection.
On September 9, representatives of the Communist Party and leaders of the
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution visited some of the Ladies in
White to warn them not to hold political activities during the meeting in
Havana of the XIV Summit of the Nonaligned Movement. Among those who were
"alerted" are Miriam Leiva, journalist and wife of journalist Oscar
Espinosa
Chepe; Laura Pollán, wife of Héctor Maseda; and Julia Núñez, wife of Adolfo
Fernández Sainz, the last two of whom are in jail.
On September 15, Ahmed Rodríguez Albacia, a reporter for the agency Jóvenes
sin Censura, was detained for two days in Havana. The 21-year-old was
released on September 17 after being behind bars for two days at the police
unit of Dragones in Old Havana. His mother, Margarita Albacia, said the
chief of the police unit refused to let her see her son and said he was
detained because he was being investigated. She added that since the
morning
he was arrested, their house was under surveillance by a large police
operation and a rapid response brigade that shouted threatening insults.
On September 27, journalist Abel Escobar Ramírez was detained for six hours
at the Morón police station in Ciego de Ávila province. Two policemen
arrested him while he was talking to a friend. The police took three
notebooks with addresses and telephone numbers, personal information and
other possessions. An official told him he had been detained for
disobedience without giving any more details. Escobar Ramírez, 50, is a
reporter for Cubanet and the magazine Carta de Cuba.
The most recent example of censorship and government disdain for the news
needs of the population is the curtain of silence over a massive
epidemic of
hemorrhagic dengue. Despite massive fumigations that the government calls
the "anti-vector battle against the Aedes Aegypti mosquito," and the
hundreds of people who have been hospitalized throughout the country, the
official press has not yet admitted the existence of the epidemic. The
number of cases has been growing for at least two months. Only the
independent press has reported the presence of this infectious disease in
the country's cities and municipalities.
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