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Free Cuba's unjustly
convicted activists
Posted on Sat, Jan. 24,
2004 in The
Miami Herald.
VERBATIM
Below are comments made this week by U.S.
State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli about
Cuban dissidents.
Last March, the Cuban government convicted
75 independent Cuban journalists, librarians,
and human-rights defenders on trumped-up
charges and sentenced them to unjust prison
sentences -- an average of 20 years each
-- for attempting to exercise their fundamental,
internationally protected rights.
Unfair detention
The United States condemns the continued
unfair detention of these individuals and
calls for their immediate release. As an
added injustice, the Cuban government is
systematically persecuting these individuals.
Christian Liberation Movement member José
Daniel Ferrer García, who was sentenced
to 25 years for his role in promoting the
Varela Project, a grass-roots movement that
supports a national referendum calling for
democratic change, was sentenced to three
months of solitary confinement as punishment
for protesting prison guards' mistreatment
of his wife.
Illness in prison
Martha Beatriz Roque, a 57-year-old independent
economist, is serving a 20-year prison term
for her efforts to organize nongovernmental
organizations dedicated to civic freedoms
and entered prison with numerous health
problems.
Independent economist and journalist Oscar
Espinosa Chepe, who is 62, remains in very
poor health and suffers from severe liver
disease and other ailments. He is serving
a 20-year prison term for reporting news
about the Cuban economy and social issues.
Neither Roque nor Espinosa Chepe have received
adequate treatment for their illnesses,
and their conditions are deteriorating.
Such deprivation and flagrant abuse of
human rights have not been limited to the
group of 75.
In February, human-rights activist Leonardo
Bruzón Avila, who is in poor health
due to repeated hunger strikes, will complete
two years in prison without a trial.
No trial
In March, blind pro-democracy activist
Juan Carlos González Leyva will also
complete two years in prison without a trial.
González was jailed for protesting
the police beating of an independent journalist.
Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, who has
worked tirelessly to express his commitment
to the use of nonviolence to achieve change,
was arrested in December 2002 for attempting
to teach others about international human-rights
practices.
We also should not forget long-suffering
political prisoners like Francisco Chaviano,
an advocate of peaceful democratic reforms,
who was sentenced in 1994 to 15 years in
prison for revealing that a member of his
organization was, in fact, a government
agent.
Defying tyranny
We express our admiration for all Cuban
political prisoners and our solidarity with
their families. The United States salutes
their courage in standing up to tyranny
while continuing to insist that Cuba must
change, democratically and peacefully.
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