Obama Should Replace Failed Embargo With Effective Multilateral Policy
November 18, 2009
"In his three years in power, Raúl Castro has been just as brutal as his
brother. Cubans who dare to criticize the government live in perpetual
fear, knowing they could wind up in prison for merely expressing their
views."
José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director
(Washington, DC) - Raúl Castro's government has locked up scores of
people for exercising their fundamental freedoms and allowed scores more
political prisoners arrested during Fidel Castro's rule to languish in
detention, Human Rights Watch says in a report released today. Rather
than dismantle Cuba's repressive machinery, Raúl Castro has kept it
firmly in place and fully active, the report says.
The 123-page report, "New Castro, Same Cuba," shows how the Raúl Castro
government has relied in particular on the Criminal Code offense of
"dangerousness," which allows authorities to imprison individuals before
they have committed any crime, on the suspicion that they are likely to
commit an offense in the future. This "dangerousness" provision is
overtly political, defining as "dangerous" any behavior that contradicts
Cuba's socialist norms.
"In his three years in power, Raúl Castro has been just as brutal as his
brother," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights
Watch. "Cubans who dare to criticize the government live in perpetual
fear, knowing they could wind up in prison for merely expressing their
views."
Based on a fact-finding mission to Cuba and more than 60 in-depth
interviews, Human Rights Watch documented more than 40 cases in which
the government has imprisoned individuals under the "dangerousness"
provision for exercising their basic rights.
Ramón Velásquez Toranzo, who set out on a peaceful march across Cuba to
call for respect for human rights and freedom for all political
prisoners, was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for
"dangerousness" in January 2007.
Raymundo Perdigón Brito, a journalist who wrote articles documenting
abuses by the government and published them on foreign websites, was
sentenced to four years in prison for "dangerousness" in December 2006.
He has endured repeated beatings by guards and solitary confinement
during his incarceration.
The Raul Castro government also uses a range of other draconian laws to
silence free speech, quash labor rights, and criminalize all forms of
dissent. Human rights defenders, journalists, and other civil society
members tried under these laws are subjected to systematic due process
violations, including abusive interrogations, the denial of legal
counsel, and sham trials.
Alexander Santos Hernandez, a political activist who was sentenced to
four years for "dangerousness" in 2006, told Human Rights Watch, "[The
police] picked me up at 5:50 a.m. while I was at home sleeping, and by
8:30 that morning they were already reading me my sentence." Santos was
denied a lawyer, and the sentence he was given was dated two days before
his trial took place.
Political prisoners are subjected to widespread abuses, including forced
ideological re-education, extended solitary confinement, and the denial
of medical treatment for serious illnesses.
In addition to imprisoning dissenters, Raúl Castro's government also
enforces political conformity using beatings, short-term detention,
public acts of repudiation, and the denial of work, among other tactics.
Taken together, these everyday forms of repression create a climate of
fear that has a profound chilling effect on the exercise of fundamental
freedoms in Cuban society.
As a human rights defender, Rodolfo Bartelemí Coba, told Human Rights
Watch in March 2009, "We live 24 hours a day ready to be detained." Ten
days after making that statement, Bartelemí was arrested and taken to
prison, where he remains.
Efforts by the US government to press for change by imposing a sweeping
embargo have proven to be a costly and misguided failure, Human Rights
Watch said. The embargo has inflicted severe hardship on the Cuban
population as a whole, while doing nothing to improve the human rights
situation in Cuba. Rather than isolating Cuba, the policy has isolated
the United States, alienating Washington's potential allies on this issue.
"Despite new leadership in Havana and Washington, Cuba continues to
crush dissent, while the US pursues the same failed embargo policy,"
said Vivanco. "As always, it is the Cuban people who are paying the price."
"New Castro, Same Cuba" recommends that the Obama administration secure
commitments from the European Union, Canada, and Latin American allies
to unite to press Cuba to meet a single, concrete demand: the immediate
and unconditional release of all political prisoners within six months.
Those include the 53 prisoners who have been languishing in prison since
a 2003 crackdown by Fidel Castro, as well as all scores of individuals
incarcerated for "dangerousness" under Raul Castro.
Once this joint commitment is in place, the US government should end its
failed embargo policy, Human Rights Watch said.
If the Raúl Castro government does not meet this demand, members of the
multilateral coalition should impose targeted, punitive measures, such
as travel bans on government officials or withholding new forms of
foreign investment. These measures should be significant enough to bear
real consequences for the Cuban government, while being careful not to
impose suffering on the Cuban population as a whole, Human Rights Watch
said.
Cuba: Raúl Castro Imprisons Critics, Crushes Dissent | Human Rights
Watch (18 November 2009)
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/11/18/cuba-ra-l-castro-imprisons-critics-crushes-dissent
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