No progress in press freedom situation in year since Raúl Castro took over
There has been no improvement in the human rights and press freedom
situation in Cuba since Raúl Castro took over from his older brother
Fidel as acting President of the Council of State a year ago, on 31 July
2006, Reporters Without Borders said as Cuba today celebrated the 54th
anniversary of a rebel attack on the Moncada Barracks.
With Fidel Castro still hospitalized, Raúl presided over today's
ceremonies, which commemorate an armed action that is regarded as the
first step in a revolution that led to the overthrow of Fulgencio
Batista's dictatorship six years later.
Since Raúl became acting president, three journalists have been
imprisoned and some 40 others and been subjected to searches, summonses
for questioning by the political police, physical attacks or threats.
"One dictatorship succeeded another in the 1959 Cuban revolution,"
Reporters Without Borders said. "And now, the first year of Raúl
Castro's presidency has not resulted in any significant change either.
The repressive methods have evolved slightly, going from massive
round-ups and Stalinist trials to everyday brutality against dissidents,
but Cuba continues to be the world's second biggest prison for journalists."
The press freedom organisation added: "Raúl Castro's tentative desire
for an 'opening' has never been translated into action. Under Spain's
aegis, there has been a return to dialogue with the Cuban government,
but the international community must clearly raise the issue of free
expression. There will be no progress if the taboos remain in place."
Oscar Sánchez Madan, the correspondent of the Cubanet website in
Matanzas (the province just to the east of Havana), was sentenced to
four years in prison in a trial held behind closed doors on 13 April,
immediately after his arrest. His family was unable to attend the trial
and he did not have a lawyer.
Raymundo Perdigón Brito, one of the founders of the independent Yayabo
Press agency, was given a four-year jail term following his arrest on 29
November 2006. Ramón Velázquez Toranso of the Libertad news agency was
arrested on 23 January 2007 and was sentenced to three years in prison.
He went on hunger strike in February.
All three of these journalists were convicted of being a "pre-criminal
social danger," a provision of the Cuban criminal code that allows the
authorities to arrest and imprison anyone on the sole grounds of the
"potential" threat they pose. The procedure is used as tool for cracking
down on dissidents.
A fourth journalist, Armando Betancourt Reina, the editor of the
underground newspaper El Camagüeyano, had been arrested on 23 May 2006.
He was finally tried a year later and sentenced to 15 months in prison
for "public disorder." Discounting the time spent in pre-trial
detention, he should be freed next month.
According to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National
Reconciliation (a group that is illegal but tolerated by the
government), Cuba currently has a total of 246 prisoners of conscience
including 25 dissident journalists.
Twenty of them - including Reporters Without Borders correspondent
Ricardo González Alfonso, the founder of the magazine De Cuba - were
arrested during the "Black Spring" crackdown of March 2003 and were
given sentences ranging from 14 to 27 years in prison. They continue to
be mistreated by prison guards and held in cells that are unfit for
habitation, and their health has suffered as a result.
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