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40 FIU-trained writers continue work within the island
By Nancy San Martin. Nsanmartin@herald.com. The Miami
Herald, June 9, 2003.
As many as 40 independent Cuban journalists, apparently undeterred by an
intensified wave of repression, are challenging the government by filing regular
news reports to foreign news outlets -- the same practice that resulted in long
jail sentences for 75 dissidents in April.
The persistent writers are among 121 journalists who have been receiving
over-the-mail and electronic training from the International Media Center at FIU
for the past four years. Twenty-one of the IMC students are among the government
opponents jailed during an island-wide sweep and sentenced to as many as 28
years during the recent summary trials.
''One has to have great admiration for people who are willing to continue
writing when they know their colleagues have been jailed for doing exactly what
they're doing,'' said John Virtue, deputy director of the IMC.
One of the trained journalists still sending dispatches via e-mail is
25-year-old Claudia Márquez Linares, whose husband, Osvaldo Alfonso, is
among those in jail. Her columns have been published in U.S. newspapers,
including The Herald's opinion pages, but appear most often in the San Antonio
Express-News.
''What Claudia is doing is an extraordinarily brave act,'' Robert Rivard,
Express-News editor and executive vice president, said by telephone. "We
have a professional obligation, or a moral obligation, to provide her with a
platform.''
''Her columns are very personal and emotional,'' said Rivard. "She has
put a human face on a community in Cuba that Americans didn't really know
existed.''
Márquez's columns appear on the Sunday opinion page. In one of her
recent works, she writes a first-person account of the closed-door trial and the
shock of hearing her husband testify that he had been pressured by U.S.
diplomats:
'. . .Three television cameras trained their lenses on my husband, Osvaldo
Alfonso, the president of the Cuban Democratic Liberal Party, who asked for
permission to read a statement. As he read, an ache gripped my chest; I could
not believe what I was hearing. Later, Cuban television repeatedly broadcast the
segment as evidence that, as peaceful government opponents, he read, '. . . we
have, in one way or another, been beholden to the interests of the United
States.' It was pure government-speak.
I still haven't been able to figure out whether he wrote it or it was
written for him . . .''
The dissidents are accused of acting as mercenaries to undermine Fidel
Castro's government. In an e-mail to The Herald, Márquez said she
continues to write -- even as state security agents threaten her with prison --
because "it is our duty as information professionals to let the world know
what is happening.''
FEAR FACTOR
''I believe that this latest wave of repression is the beginning of the
end,'' Márquez wrote in the e-mail. 'If writing and talking in Cuba means
that you are a lackey of imperialism, then let us be judged. But we are very
much aware that beneath the argument that we are 'traitors to the homeland,'
'mercenaries,' etc., what the government really aspires to achieve is that no
organization or person exist who is disposed to express something different from
the Communist Party line.
''I cannot deny that I am afraid,'' she wrote, "but the desire for a
different Cuba, where the press is not a reflection of the thoughts of one
leader, where people can read a newspaper or magazine of their choosing -- not
imposed by anyone -- I believe that is strong motivation that inspires me to
continue fighting for freedom of the press.''
While Márquez communicates with anyone outside Cuba who will listen,
her husband remains behind bars. His shocking courtroom statement apparently had
no sway: He received an 18-year sentence.
Over the past nine months, works by Márquez and others have been
edited and translated by FIU and offered to newspapers in the United States and
Latin America.
The Cuban journalists are among 8,000 Latin American journalists from 14
countries trained by the IMC, which has been part of the FIU School of
Journalism and Mass Communication since 1986. USAID (U.S. Agency for
International Development) funds the program's Cuba component.
FIU was even mentioned during court proceedings as ''evidence'' that
independent journalists had ''conspired'' with U.S. sources.
Professors at the International Media Center believe that the source who
provided the government with details of the program was yet another talented
writer who emerged from the IMC training program. Manuel David Orrio was outed
as ''Agent Miguel,'' who turned on his colleagues.
Virtue met him in December during a presumed undercover trip to Havana where
Virtue gave a three-hour workshop on the role of the press in a democracy.
Eighteen independent journalists showed up, including Orrio. Three months later,
Orrio helped organize a workshop on ethics held at the home of James Cason, head
of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. The arrests began shortly after and
testimony from Orrio was used to get 20-year prison sentences for independent
journalists Raúl Rivero and Ricardo González.
MEDIA RESPONSE
''He was one of our stars,'' Virtue said. "It was kind of sobering to
realize that one of the people [at the workshop] there was undercover security.
I mean, we knew they would be around, but we didn't think they would take on
such a prominent role.''
Although disappointed by the spy revelation, Virtue said the crackdown has
spurred interest among newspapers to publish the works of independent
journalists.
The independent journalism movement in Cuba started in the early '90s and
had been growing steadily. An estimated 150 journalists across the island were
collaborating with about a dozen ad-hoc agencies to file reports when security
agents began rounding them up in mid-March.
Since then, security agents have visited many who continue to write, warning
them of possible arrest. Some have been been told: Give up journalism or leave
the country.
The journalists file their reports to Internet sites outside Cuba and some
of the published works are smuggled back. The IMC is now preparing to make some
of the reports available on the U.S.-funded Radio Martí, which began
broadcasting from the United States to Cuba in 1985. | 
