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Carta de Cuba, la escritura de la libertad |
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March 15, 2006 PRISONER NOT ALLOWED TO RECEIVE MEDICINES Ciego de Avila – Authorities from the Canaleta prison in Ciego de Avila have forbidden the political prisoner of conscience Adolfo Fernández Sáinz, to receive the remedies his relatives brought him to the prison, 500 Kms. away from his home in the City of Havana, where he is serving a 15-year sentence. The medicines consisted of highly needed vitamins, which his relatives were trying to give him, considering his delicate health condition. PRIVATE PROPERTIES CONFISCATED Havana – Numerous properties that the Cuban district attorney office considered were obtained through supposedly illicit means, like vehicles and houses, have been confiscated as a result of a new campaign carried out by dictator Fidel Castro, in order to terminate the so-called ¨new rich¨. A recently published report in the official newspaper Granma, informed that the government has proceeded to apply confiscation in some 487 cases. Of these, 37% correspond to self employed workers, mainly housing renters who distorted their living permits to carry out such activity without any approval. The newspaper also mentions as other sources of ¨illicit wealth¨, the deviation of state resources by workers, or even breeding animals without authorization or using robbed raw materials, to feed them. PROTESTANT MINSTERS ARRESTED Havana – There is not any official confirmation, yet, about eleven Protestant priests belonging to different parishes in the City of Havana, who have been arrested in recent days. It is speculated that such arrests have some political connotation, since the detained remain in the Special Investigations Center, at 100th and Aldabó, in the Cuban capital. On the other hand, Castro’s government continues his absolute control policy and has applied new restrictions to religious freedoms. One of them allows the confiscation of houses for worship if they are not registered as family homes, and others are related to freedom of word, opinion and reunion. GUILLERMO FARIÑAS IN SERIOUS CONDITION Havana – The Cuban Independent Libraries Project, in view of the serious health condition of Guillermo Fariñas, project coordinator in the country’s central region, made responsible Fidel Castro’s regime for whatever may happen to this peaceful fighter, who has been on a hunger strike for already five weeks. Last January 31st, Guillermo Fariñas declared himself on a hunger strike, due to the Cuban government’s imposition preventing him free access to Internet. At present, Fariñas remains hospitalized in the intensive care unit of Santa Clara provincial hospital, receiving hydration through vein, with a very serious prognosis, for his blood pressure is extremely low and he is suffering ceaseless head and joints aches. EGYPTIAN MUMMY FUMIGATED Santiago de Cuba – The only Egyptian mummy existing in Cuba, belonging to this city’s collection, received a special treatment to protect it from environmental pollution. At the end of 2005, a considerable amount of fungus was found in the more than 2,000 years old mummy, capable of deteriorating it, for which it was submitted to a vaporization and fumigation treatment with a special product utilized to disinfect surgery rooms other sanitary spaces, as explained by biologist Rosa Iris García, from the Patrimony Office in Santiago de Cuba. The treatment was coordinated with the Allergy Department of Saturnino Lora Hospital in Santiago de Cuba, and the Hygiene and Epidemiology Department of the Public Health Ministry. Emilio Bacardí Moreau, who was the first mayor of Santiago de Cuba and founder of the museum carrying his name, brought this mummy to Cuba in 1911, after a trip to Egypt, and nowadays the piece is one of the institution’s main attractions. SHORTAGE OF RUM IN CUBA Havana – The Trabajadores official newspaper acknowledged that there is a shortage of rum in the national market as well as for exportation. Dora Carbonell, production assistant director of the Beverages Enterprise at the Food Industry Ministry, was interviewed by said diary, on account of the population’s restlessness due to the product’s absence. The officer, without entering into many details, explained that, in effect, there was a lack of ingredients to manufacture it, due to problems with the supply of raw materials, which has endangered even the exportation figures foreseen for this month. EUROPEAN GENERATORS TO CUBA Havana – Cuba destined more than 440 million euros (some $550 million dollars) for buying reactors and electric machinery from European enterprises, fundamentally electric generators from German and Spanish groups, as a way to alleviate the energetic crisis affecting the country. Besides, nearly 140 million euros ($175 million dollars) were invested in buying the optical equipment destined to the so-called ¨Operation Miracle¨, launched by Venezuela in order to assist Latin American patients of meager resources with eye problems, which actually represents an extra hard currency and petroleum entry for Fidel Castro´s government. FISHERMEN BOAT DESTROYED Campechuela – Border patrol and state security troops from this western municipality, located in the Granma province, destroyed a fishing boat, raising it with a crane and dropping it to the ground. This took place after the fishermen operating the boat, Francisco Santana, Manuel Reina and José Bello, were being investigated for over 7 days, when authorities suspected their possible illegal exit from the country. Besides, each one of them was given a fine for 3,000 thousand pesos, an amount which they could hardly afford, since the destroyed boat was their only source of financial income. Three years after "black spring" the independent press refuses to remain in the dark Reporters without Borders On March 18, 2003, an unprecedented wave of repression broke over Cuban dissidents. For three days, ninety opponents of the regime were arrested on grounds that they were "agents of the American enemy." Among them were twenty-seven journalists. Nearly all of them were tried under the "88 Law" of February 1999, which protects the "national independence and economy of Cuba," and were given prison sentences ranging from 14 to 27 years. This "black spring" dealt a heavy blow to Cuba's independent press, which had started to emerge on the island in the early 1990s with the creation of small news agencies. Since the latter's founders and directors who had been thrown in jail, many journalists preferred to give up their profession or opt for a life of exile. Did independent journalism die out in Cuba that day? Three years after the crackdown, Reporters Without Borders wanted to take stock of the situation. Unable to send representatives to Cuba, the organization contacted journalists who were still living on the island, or in exile, members of an agency or freelancers, families of jailed dissidents and media outlets - such as Internet websites, radio stations, and publications - most of whom are based in Miami (the second largest Cuban city in the world, with close to 3 million nationals), Puerto Rico, and Madrid. Although it is difficult at present to estimate the exact number of working journalists in Cuba, and their working conditions are even more precarious in the wake of a new wave of repression that has begun to spread across the country, the unofficial Cuban press has not given up. In fact, it constitutes the top news source on the status of human rights on the island. However, its clandestine situation has forced it to be a press "from the inside for the outside", one nearly inaccessible to those whom it covers on a daily basis. Click on this link to read the latest RSF report.
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