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Carta de Cuba, la escritura de la libertad |
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FEBRUARY 22, 2006 5,000,000 POUNDS OF RICE WITHOUT DESTINY Cienfuegos – The official Cuban press has been forced to denounce the inefficiency of the organizations in charge of marketing the rice crop in this province, where more than 5,000,000 pounds of rice produced by local farmers has not been bought by the government, while the population is suffering of deprivation. Almost half of the non-marketed rice is located in Aguada de Pasajeros, and some 1,400,000 pounds correspond to the Abreu municipality. What worries most to the government is that such accumulation of rice in the fields may favor the intervention of middle men, who could obtain earnings considered illicit, by arranging the sale of the product through unofficial channels. CUBA HAS GRADUATED 2,000 STUDENTS FROM THE SAHARA Havana – Cuba has graduated, as professionals, more than 2 thousand students from the Saharauí Arab Democratic Republic (old Western Sahara). Bachir Mustafá Sayed, Minister of Teaching and Education from that African state and member of the Polisario Front, who is now visiting Havana, said that many of the students graduated in Cuba occupy important political, social, managerial and professional responsibilities in his country, after studying in the island’s universities and specialized centers, in what he believes represents ¨a valuable contribution to the his people’s struggle for sovereignty¨. FIDEL CASTRO RECEIVES THE IRANIAN PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT Havana – The official Cuban press informed about the interview between Fidel Castro and Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, President of Iran’s Islamic Advisory Assembly. International analysts and the foreign press in Havana were speculating on the possibility of such meeting to take place, since after several days in the island, the Islamic Advisory Assembly had been only received by members of the so-called Cuban ¨parliament¨. Fidel Castro reiterated to Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, the Cuban government’s support to the use of nuclear energy by Iran, including the production of that type of fuel, something which would increase tensions all around the Middle East. JAIL RIGOR INCREASED FOR VICTOR ROLANDO ARROYO Holguín – The Cuban government increased the jail rigor in the case of the independent journalist and prisoner of conscience Víctor Rolando Arroyo. Now the prisoner can only receive family visits every four months, when previously to that period, it used to be three. 56-year old Arroyo was arrested, judged and jailed during the spring of 2003, and he is serving a 26-year sentence at the ¨Cuba Sí¨ prison, in the Holguín province, for exerting his right to free speech. As denounced by his wife, Elsa González, Arroyo is suffering from serious health problems. PRO-CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS RETAINED Havana – The Cuban Ministry of Interior retained the country’s exit permit -known as the ¨white card¨- to Carlos Hernández Chaviano, member of the oppositionist group known as National Council for the Civil Rights in Cuba. Hernández Chaviano should have travelled to the United States, on last February 14th, under the custody of the refugee program, but when beginning his emigration ¨pre-check-up¨, in the City of Havana, his exit permit was retained, without any explanation. IN VERY POOR HEALTH JOURNALIST LAZARO FARIÑAS Villa Clara – Independent journalist Lázaro Fariñas Hernández continues in the hospital, refusing to abandon his hunger strike for the right of gaining access to the Internet for the Cuban people and, fundamentally, for the independent press in the country. Pro-human rights activists and independent communicators in different provinces have supported Fariñas’ action. ¨Free access to Internet to inform us on what’s going on in the world is a right which we are not going to give up, in spite of the government’s intolerance¨, declared in Jovellanos, Matanzas, Caridad Díaz Beltrán, director of the Lux Info Press agency. According to Díaz Beltrán, the Cuban leaders are hiding information to the people, nationally as well as internationally. RSF FEARS NEW CRACKDOWN AGAINST INDEPENDENT PRESS Reporters Without Borders ("RSF") has expressed concern that a renewed crackdown has been unleashed against the independent press and that independent journalists are suffering harassment.Since the "black spring" of 2003, those journalists who are still working are subjected to constant pressure from the Cuban authorities. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) has condemned this new wave of political repression since the start of 2006 that has taken the form of violence and threats towards the independent press."This series of persecutory measures taken against dissident journalists could very well auger a new 'black spring'", the press freedom organisation said. "Nevertheless, no crackdown however far-reaching can ever completely end the existence of an independent press in Cuba," it added, wondering, "Why do the authorities refuse to see that reality. Also why do they refuse to allow journalists to emigrate if they wish to, like Jorge Olivera, whom they would like to see leave? This attitude is both unfair and nonsensical," it concluded.Locked up during the March 2003 crackdown and released for health reasons on 6 December 2004, Jorge Olivera Castillo was summoned to appear on 21 February 2006, before a municipal people's court in Havana where judges informed him that he was banned from leaving the capital. Olivera, his wife and two children, have had a legal visa for the United States since October 2002, but the authorities unfairly refuse to allow them the right to leave. Moreover, he is now forced to work for a work centre chosen for him by the court. He also has to appear before the state organisation which defines the country's ideological line. If he fails to follow the orders he is given by the municipal people's court, he will automatically be returned to prison. He is nevertheless determined to continue his work as a journalist, as he confirmed to Reporters Without Borders after the hearing. Elsewhere, on 13 February, the independent journalist Roberto Santana Rodríguez was summoned to the police station in Marianao in the capital. After waiting for two hours he was seen by an officer, Moisés, who showed him a file containing various articles he had written. This file could be used by the authorities against the journalist, putting him at risk of imprisonment. The president of a Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR), Armando Rivero, threatened Oscar Sanchez Madán in Havana on 17 February for having quoted his name on his programme on Miami-based Radio Martí. The journalist was previously physically attacked by paramilitaries on 21 and 23 January. On 19 February, Gilberto Manuel González Delgado, head of the Notilibre news agency in Havana, had his home searched by a state security officer and two members of the CDR. A type-writer and articles were seized. He was threatened with being charged under the 88 Law on the "protection of Cuba's independence and economy", if he continued to do his job. He would face a 20-year prison term. The Cuban authorities on 20 February 2006 banned the sale of foreign magazines such as Hola!, Mecánica popular, Muy interesante and El País on the grounds that they are "ideologically dangerous".
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