Carta de Cuba, la escritura de la libertad

November 2, 2005

Pinar del Río – Tenths of thousands of people evacuated in the wake of hurricane Wilma have lost all their belongings. The larger part of cattle, stockyard animals and few consumer items possessed by the residents, in towns and rural areas, were swept away by the waters of Cuyaguateje river –the longest in the province- as well as strong winds. The hurricane also seriously affected the tobacco crop, which is the main economic staple of the province, destroying the road that goes to La Bajada, near San Antonio Key. The number of houses destroyed has not been officially revealed yet.

Havana – Fines of 500 pesos were imposed to several ¨bici-taxi drivers¨ in the Cuban capital, in what seems to be another official offensive against people working self-employed. The ¨bici-cab drivers¨ -conducting bicycles adapted to transport passengers in the city- notably contribute to alleviate the transportation crisis which Cuba suffers, particularly in the capital, the city of Havana, where more than 75 per cent of the public transportation buses are out of service.

OPPONENTS THREATENED IN MANICARAGUA

Villa Clara – The Communist Party of the Municipality of Manicaragua, province of Villa Clara, in the center of the country, circulated internally a list including 20 peaceful local opponents, with the purpose that they should be closely watched by the regime’s followers. The document, which transcended to independent journalists, qualifies those opponents as renowned ¨counterrevolutionaries¨, and does not discard the possibility of using coercive methods with them, like beatings and ¨preventive incarceration¨. Among the most threatened were Juan Ricardo Ferrer, independent educator, Mario César Lorenzo del Sol and Osmani Hernández Mesa, among other activists. Besides, it was reported, that a group of opponents which were in a public place in the area, were forced to abandon the place, as part of the prosecution and ostracism policy followed against them by the Cuban regime.

Havana – ¨El Nuevo Herald¨ newspaper, edited in Miami, in Spanish, circulates from hand to hand among the residents of the Cuban capital, whose population is eager to read an uncensored publication. The newspaper has caused a great impact, especially among those people that for years haven’t had access to other kind of press than the official one. The Miami newspaper has been introduced in Cuba through diplomatic and commercial representatives from different countries. They provide some copies to close friends, who later on circulate them among the population. ¨El Nuevo Herald¨ has been systematically accused, by the Fidel Castro’s regime, of being ¨the libel of the Cuban-American mafia¨, on account of the denunciations it publishes about the human rights violations taking place in the island.

Indianapolis – The labor performed by the independent activists and journalists, in Cuba, and the reprisals to which they are submitted by the government, was an issue debated at the Report to the 61^st General Assembly of the Inter American Press Society (IAPA), which took place in Indianapolis. Among the examples mentioned at the meeting, are the cases of Doctor Florencio Cruz, member of the Línea Sur Press agency, who was detained in Cienfuegos, on the past month of August, for more than eight hours, in order to force him to abandon his professional tasks, and of Guillermo Fariñas, collaborator of the Cubanacán Press Agency, in Santa Clara, who was insulted and beaten in the middle of the street by government demonstrators, in the presence of police agents.

Numerous civil organizations have greeted the granting of the Sajarov Human Rights Prize, by the European Parliament, to the ¨Ladies in White¨. Stands out, among them, the Martí Juvenile Coalition, an organization promoting the life and work of the Apostle José Martí. In a brief statement, issued in that respect, the members of this organization point out that the ¨Ladies in White¨ constitute a symbol of the struggle for the liberation of the Cuban political prisoners, having bravely demanded the freedom of their loved ones and denouncing the infrahuman conditions endured by the prisoners in prison.

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