|
[Left to right: Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Raul
Arencibia Fajardo, and Virgilio Marante
Guelmes]
In the most recent
example of the draconian measures being taken by the regime of Fidel
Castro to repress the island's growing dissident movement, on May 18 the
Cuban government convicted and sentenced three nonviolent human rights
advocates to three years of incarceration.(1)
The three activists,
Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Raul Arencibia Fajardo, and Virgilio Marante
Guelmes, had been in jail awaiting trial since December 6, 2002, when they were
arrested for studying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at a
residence in Havana.
Consequent to engaging in such an activity the state charged the three
with "contempt of authority, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest."
The organizer of the meeting, leading Afro-Cuban dissident physician and
civil rights leader Oscar Elias Biscet, was arrested alongside Zapata,
Arencibia, and Marante in December 2002 and subsequently condemned to a
25-year prison term in April 2003.(2)
Biscet was among a
group of 75 dissidents, independent journalists and librarians, and other
civil rights activists who were arrested and summarily sentenced in April
2003 to prison terms of as many as 28 years.(3) The harsh sentences were
meant to communicate to the population the Cuban state's intolerance of
any public criticism of Fidel Castro and his government, including
ascribing blame for the deteriorating living conditions in Cuba, as well
as its willlingness to use coercive means against anyone who would dare
challenge the legitimacy and continuity of the Castro
regime.
The imprisonment of
Zapata, Arencibia, and Marante comes on the heels of a series of recent
convictions of other opposition leaders and human rights advocates. On May
5 a Cuban court handed down sentences of up to five years to three other
individuals who had been held behind bars since being apprehended on
January 28,
2002, for publicly demanding the release of
Cuba's
political prisoners. Their case came less than two weeks after that of a
group of 10 (ten) critics of the Castro regime who had gathered in front
of a hospital in the town of Ciego de Avila on March 4, 2002, to protest
the beating of an independent journalist. Evinced against the accused
included their having exclaimed in public, "Down with Fidel!," an act
which in
Cuba falls
under the crime of contempt for authority (namely, the person of Fidel
Castro). For their "contempt" the state condemned the ten outspoken but
otherwise law-abiding citizens to as many as seven years of incarceration.
Among those convicted is a blind 39-year-old dissident lawyer, Juan Carlos
Gonzalez Leiva, who is now serving a four-year sentence under house
arrest.(4)
Despite
international outcry and appeals to the Cuban government from the United
Nations and the European Union, the Castro regime has been relentless in
its efforts to eradicate all dissent and independent civil society
activities in the island. Since its initial crackdown launched against
dissident leaders and human rights advocates in the spring of 2003, no
fewer than 91 individuals have been summarily tried and sentenced for the
peaceful exercise of their civil rights and liberties, many of which are
even recognized by
Cuba's
own communist constitution of 1976.
In addition, many
others continue to be deprived of their freedom or otherwise repressed. As
can be seen by recent cases, in
Cuba
the judicial system operates at the whim of the executive power without
any care or consideration for due process. It is not unusual to be
detained for months without arraignment, and even longer while awaiting
trial. Such is the situation of Jose Agramonte Leyva, Francisco Pacheco
Espinosa, Jorge Luis Suarez Varona, and Elizardo Calvo, imprisoned without
formal charges since the end of 2003. Among their crimes are the operation
of an independent library and the organization of dissident civic groups,
for which they have been accused of "sabotage" and "enemy propaganda."(5)
Others, such as
Dorka Cespedes, a healthcare professional turned independent journalist,
are prohibited from leaving the island. The
U.S.
granted Cespedes an immigration visa in September 2003. However, the Cuban
government subsequently informed Ms. Cespedes that hers is a "special
case" and that she will have to wait until the authorities in
Havana determine that she is
free to emigrate. While Cespedes's predicament is compounded by her
dissident status, all Cuban physicians and healthcare workers are denied
the right to emigrate under Decree-Law 54 of 1999. Since that year, all
employees of Cuba's Ministry of Public Health must fulfill five years of
service in order to qualify for an "exit permit" from the Interior
Ministry's Department of Emigration.(6) Moreover, even after completing
the service requirement, all emigration from the island is at the ultimate
discretion of the government, which has made it virtually impossible for
physicians, scientists, engineers, and other highly-qualified
professionals to legally emigrate.
At present there are
no fewer than 400 documented cases of known imprisonment in
Cuba
for political dissent, human rights advocacy, civil society participation,
and conscientious objection to the Castro regime and its policies. [For a
list of
Cuba's
political prisoners, see the Cuba Transition Project Political Prisoner
Database at: http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/main.htm.]
Moreover, a recent study by the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and
National Reconciliation estimated the island's total prison population at
100,000. In the 1950s, during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, whom
Castro overthrew in 1959,
Cuba's
penal system held 4,000 inmates in 14 jails and penitentiaries. While the
overall population has roughly doubled to some 11 million inhabitants
since Castro's revolution took power, the inmate population has multiplied
exponentially by 2,500 percent, to some 100,000 prisoners at approximately
200 facilities. Particularly disturbing, according to the study, are 8-10
"reform centers" for youth, which place
Cuba
"among the foremost places in the world -- or maybe the first -- [per
100,000 inhabitants] in the number of incarcerated children and school-age
adolescents."(7)
________________________________________________________
NOTES
1.
Nelson Acosta, "Cuban Dissidents Jailed in Third Trial in a Month,"
Reuters, Havana,
18 May 2004; Vanessa Arrington,
"Cuba
Sentences Three in Dissidents Trial," Associated Press, 19 May 2004.
2.
Ibid.
3.
Associated Press,
"Cuba
sentences last of 75 dissidents in crackdown,"
Havana, 10 April 2003; Vanessa Bauza,
"Cuba's
jailed dissidents: a year has passed since 75 were arrested in worst wave
of repression in four decades," South
Florida Sun-Sentinel, 14 March 2004.
4.
BBC News, "Cuba jails blind dissident lawyer," 20 April 2004; Associated
Press, "Blind dissident freed on parole after getting a 4-year sentence,"
Havana, 28 April 2004; Reinaldo Cosano Alen, "Impone juez limitaciones de
libertad a Gonzalez Leiva," Havana, CubaNet, 11 May
2004.
5.
Moises Leonardo Rodriguez Valdes, "Detenidos sin juicio opositores
camagueyanos,"
Havana, Grupo
Decor/CubaNet, 5 May
2004.
6.
Maria Lopez, "Niegan permiso de salida a periodista independiente,"
Havana, Lux Info
Press/CubaNet, 5 May
2004.
7.
Patrick Lescot, "Dissident study calls Cuban prisons 'tropical gulag,' "
AFP, Havana, 11 May 2004; "Bajo Fidel Castro crecio un 2.500 por ciento el
numero de presos, dice estudio," El
Tiempo (Colombia), 12 May 2004.
|
Thème précédent
Premier 