15 March 2007
Spring just as sombre for independent press four years after Black Spring crackdown
Four years after the March 2003 crackdown, Cuba still has 270 prisoners
of conscience including 25 journalists, which makes the island the
world's second biggest prisoner for the press after China, Reporters
Without Borders said today, after staging a protest at Cuba's stand in
the international tourism fair in Paris.
The human rights situation has shown no improvement since Fidel Castro
officially transferred power to his brother Raúl on 31 July of last
year. In fact the repression has worsened since the autumn, with an
increase in attacks, searches and arrests of independent journalists.
Some 30 Reporters Without Borders activists demonstrated today in front
of Cuba's stand at the tourism fair in Paris, unfurling banners, putting
up posters and demanding the release of the 25 journalists detained in
Cuba. Wearing black T-shirts with the words "Cuba = prison," they
covered the stand with adhesive black stripes symbolising the bars of a
prison. Reporters Without Borders also demonstrated in front of the
Tunisian and Egyptian stands.
Whether or not they are imprisoned, Cuba's independent journalists have
been having a particularly trying March. Twenty of them, who have been
held ever since the March 2003 "Black Spring" and who are serving jail
terms ranging from 14 to 27 years, continue to be mistreated by their
guards and their health has suffered.
Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Oriental
(APLO), a small independent news agency, is regularly beaten by the
guards at Kilo 8 prison in the central city of Camagüey. Along with 17
other detainees, he began a hunger strike on 7 March in protest against
prison conditions and to draw attention to his state of health, and to
that of two of his colleagues, Alfredo Manuel Pulido López of the El
Mayor news agency and Normando Hernández González, the head of the
Colegio de Periodistas Independientes de Camagüey (CPIC). Hernández, who
is in Camagüey's Kilo 7 prison, has tuberculosis but is not receiving
the necessary treatment. He has been refusing to take food since 4 March.
Laura Pollán Toledo complained to the interior ministry on 7 March about
the way her 64-year-old husband, Héctor Fernando Maseda Gutiérrez, the
co-founder of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro news agency, was transferred
from his prison in the western town of Agüica to a hospital where he was
to be operated. Although extremely weak, he was left in a punishment
cell for three hours and was then shackled for the transfer. The order
for this to be done was given by Capt. Emilio Cruz Rodríguez, who was
accused of "sadism" by Pollán.
Ricardo González Alfonso, the editor of the magazine De Cuba and
Reporters Without Borders' Cuba correspondent, is still in the recovery
ward of the military hospital at Havana's Combinado del Este prison,
after undergoing three operations in December 2005. He is serving a
20-year sentence which he received in 2003.
Ramón Velázquez Toranso of the Libertad new agency, who has been
detained since 23 January of this year, was transferred to a
forced-labour camp in the eastern province of Las Tunas on 3 March. When
his wife and daughter asked why he had been transferred, they were told
it was "on the orders of State Security." He is serving a three-year
prison sentence for being a "pre-criminal social danger."
Ahmed Rodríguez Albacia of the Jóvenes sin Censura news agency was
arrested by State Security on 2 March as he was going with some other
young people to an exhibition in Havana. Officials threatened him with
imprisonment before letting him go. He was held for 24 hours last
September, and was detained again from 4 to 12 December at State
Security headquarters.
Cubanacán Press editor Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, the Reporters
Without Borders - Fondation de France Cyber-Freedom laureate in 2006,
was assaulted on 2 March in Santa Clara by State Security officials led
by Lt. Yuniel Monteagudo Reina and four members of the Association of
Combatants of the Cuban Revolution. He was briefly held in a police
station after the attack, which left him with bruises to the head and face.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21337
Spring just as sombre for independent press four years after Black Spring crackdown
Four years after the March 2003 crackdown, Cuba still has 270 prisoners
of conscience including 25 journalists, which makes the island the
world's second biggest prisoner for the press after China, Reporters
Without Borders said today, after staging a protest at Cuba's stand in
the international tourism fair in Paris.
The human rights situation has shown no improvement since Fidel Castro
officially transferred power to his brother Raúl on 31 July of last
year. In fact the repression has worsened since the autumn, with an
increase in attacks, searches and arrests of independent journalists.
Some 30 Reporters Without Borders activists demonstrated today in front
of Cuba's stand at the tourism fair in Paris, unfurling banners, putting
up posters and demanding the release of the 25 journalists detained in
Cuba. Wearing black T-shirts with the words "Cuba = prison," they
covered the stand with adhesive black stripes symbolising the bars of a
prison. Reporters Without Borders also demonstrated in front of the
Tunisian and Egyptian stands.
Whether or not they are imprisoned, Cuba's independent journalists have
been having a particularly trying March. Twenty of them, who have been
held ever since the March 2003 "Black Spring" and who are serving jail
terms ranging from 14 to 27 years, continue to be mistreated by their
guards and their health has suffered.
Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Oriental
(APLO), a small independent news agency, is regularly beaten by the
guards at Kilo 8 prison in the central city of Camagüey. Along with 17
other detainees, he began a hunger strike on 7 March in protest against
prison conditions and to draw attention to his state of health, and to
that of two of his colleagues, Alfredo Manuel Pulido López of the El
Mayor news agency and Normando Hernández González, the head of the
Colegio de Periodistas Independientes de Camagüey (CPIC). Hernández, who
is in Camagüey's Kilo 7 prison, has tuberculosis but is not receiving
the necessary treatment. He has been refusing to take food since 4 March.
Laura Pollán Toledo complained to the interior ministry on 7 March about
the way her 64-year-old husband, Héctor Fernando Maseda Gutiérrez, the
co-founder of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro news agency, was transferred
from his prison in the western town of Agüica to a hospital where he was
to be operated. Although extremely weak, he was left in a punishment
cell for three hours and was then shackled for the transfer. The order
for this to be done was given by Capt. Emilio Cruz Rodríguez, who was
accused of "sadism" by Pollán.
Ricardo González Alfonso, the editor of the magazine De Cuba and
Reporters Without Borders' Cuba correspondent, is still in the recovery
ward of the military hospital at Havana's Combinado del Este prison,
after undergoing three operations in December 2005. He is serving a
20-year sentence which he received in 2003.
Ramón Velázquez Toranso of the Libertad new agency, who has been
detained since 23 January of this year, was transferred to a
forced-labour camp in the eastern province of Las Tunas on 3 March. When
his wife and daughter asked why he had been transferred, they were told
it was "on the orders of State Security." He is serving a three-year
prison sentence for being a "pre-criminal social danger."
Ahmed Rodríguez Albacia of the Jóvenes sin Censura news agency was
arrested by State Security on 2 March as he was going with some other
young people to an exhibition in Havana. Officials threatened him with
imprisonment before letting him go. He was held for 24 hours last
September, and was detained again from 4 to 12 December at State
Security headquarters.
Cubanacán Press editor Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, the Reporters
Without Borders - Fondation de France Cyber-Freedom laureate in 2006,
was assaulted on 2 March in Santa Clara by State Security officials led
by Lt. Yuniel Monteagudo Reina and four members of the Association of
Combatants of the Cuban Revolution. He was briefly held in a police
station after the attack, which left him with bruises to the head and face.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21337
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