WRITE AWARD
2007-04-11. PEN American Center, www.pen.org
New York, NY, April 10, 2007—PEN American Center today named Normando
Hernández González, a Cuban writer and journalist who was arrested along
with 74 other journalists and democracy and human rights activists in a
March 2003 crackdown, as recipient of its 2007 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith
Freedom to Write Award.
The award, which honors international literary figures who have been
persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to
freedom of expression, will be presented at PEN's Annual Gala on April
30, 2007 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Distinguished writer, historian, and PEN Trustee Barbara Goldsmith
underwrites the award. Candidates are nominated by International PEN and
any of its 141 constituent PEN Centers around the world and screened by
PEN American Center and an Advisory Board comprising some of the most
distinguished experts in the field. The Advisory Board for the
PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards includes Carroll Bogert,
Associate Director of Human Rights Watch; Vartan Gregorian, President of
the Carnegie Corporation; Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, International
Secretary of International PEN; Aryeh Neier, President of the Open
Society Institute; and Joel Simon, Executive Director of the Committee
to Protect Journalists.
Normando Hernández González is a writer and independent journalist. He
is the director of Camagüey College of Independent Journalists, a group
of journalists who seek to serve as an alternative to the State-owned
press in and around Camagüey.
On March 18, 2003, Hernández was arrested along with 74 other
journalists and activists considered to be dissidents by the Cuban
government. The youngest of those arrested in this notorious crackdown,
Hernández, now 38, was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment under Article
91 of the Cuban Criminal Code for reporting on the conditions of
state-run services in Cuba and for criticizing the government's
management of issues such as tourism, agriculture, fishing, and cultural
affairs. For several months following his imprisonment, Hernández was
kept in solitary confinement and allowed only four hours of sunlight a
week, no access to television or radio, and extremely restricted
communication with his family. In August, after engaging in a hunger
strike with seven other inmates in protest of the deplorable prison
conditions, Hernández was transferred to Kilo 5½ prison in Pinar del
Río, over 400 four hundred miles from his home and family.
In Pinar del Río, Hernández was denied access to the outside world in
any form, and forced to share a small, filthy cell with insects,
rodents, and prisoners considered dangerous or mentally unstable. He was
badly beaten by the Prison Chief of Security and contracted tuberculosis
before being moved to Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey.
Hernández suffers from tuberculosis and a chronic gastro-intestinal
disorder, which have caused him to lose at least 35 pounds. In December
2006, he was rushed in critical condition to the Amalia Simoni
Provincial Hospital in Camagüey after suffering from fainting spells.
During his hospital stay, he was kept in a room without a bed, table or
chair for an entire week. On December 27, State Security soldiers
removed Hernández from the hospital and took him back to prison. Doctors
claimed that the hospital was lacking in the resources needed to treat
Hernández's condition.
In announcing the award today in New York, Freedom to Write Program
Director Larry Siems praised Hernández's exceptional courage and
integrity. "When the March 2003 crackdown began, Normando Hernández
González eluded arrest for 24 hours so he could celebrate his daughter's
first birthday, and then he turned himself in. Since then, he has
endured abusive treatment in prison conditions that clearly violate
international norms, to the extreme detriment of his health—the youngest
of the 75 detained in the crackdown, he is in danger of dying from the
conditions of his detention. Yet he has refused to renounce his
commitment to expand freedom of expression and essential rights in Cuba,
publishing critical and personal essays and protesting the treatment of
other prisoners. Hernández embodies PEN's highest ideals, and we are
proud to honor him as this year's recipient of the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith
Freedom to Write Award."
Noting that 59 of the 75 journalists and activists arrested in March
2003 remain in prison, Siems appealed to organizations around the world
to join in pressing the Cuban government to release Hernández
immediately and move quickly to release all who have been jailed in Cuba
in violation of their universally guaranteed rights to freedom of
assembly and freedom of expression. "Over the last four years,
international pressure led to the release of Raúl Rivero, Marta Beatriz
Roque, Manuel Vázquez Portal, and 13 more of the most prominent
detainees. But 16 out of 75 is not a victory. Behind those released are
dozens more who are serving unjust sentence in unconscionable
conditions. They, too, must be freed."
This is the 21st year that the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write
Awards have honored international literary figures who have been
persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to
freedom of expression. The awards are an extension of PEN's year-round
advocacy on behalf of the more than 1,020 writers and journalists who
are currently threatened or in prison. Forty-two women and men have
received the award since 1987; 30 of the 32 honorees who were in prison
at the time they were honored were subsequently released.
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