Abril

Ladies in White attacked after Mass in Perico

HAVANA, Cuba, April 30 (Miriam Leiva, www.cubanet.org) – Three members of the dissident Ladies in White were attacked by police and private citizens following Sunday’s Mass in Perico, Matanzas province, according to one of them, Alejandrina García de la Riva.

García de la Riva, wife of political prisoner Diosdado Marrero, said she was accompanied by two other relatives of dissidents imprisoned in 2003, Saili Navarro, daughter of Félix Navarro, and Noelia  Pedraza, wife of Ariel Sigler Amaya, Damas de Blanco, as well as friends.

She said after Mass in the Perico’s church she and the others were walking through the town’s streets carrying flowers when attacked by a crowd she said was organized by State Security agents, members of the political police and the national police. She said they were pushed and insulted before being able to board a bus at the bus terminal.

She said other Ladies in White in Pedro Betancourt were prevented by police from joining them in Perico.

Protestant preacher threatened by government 

HAVANA, April 30 (Juan Carlos González / www.cubanet.org) – Protestant minister Tomasa Victoria Ayala said officials from the Justice Ministry showed up at her home last Sunday and prevented her from preaching that day, as well as threatening to remove her from the house.

Ayala said she was put on trial at the beginning of April but that a verdict has not yet been given.

The government does not recognize her sect, the Apostolic International Ministry of Fire and Dynamism because, she said, she does not support it.

Ayala said 20 of her followers would meet Sundays in her house, where she had lived for 29 years and finished buying two years ago.

Prisoner who tried to divert passenger launch reported ill

HAVANA, Cuba, April 29 (Ana Aguililla / www.cubanet.org) – The mother of Luis Campos says her son, serving a 25-year sentence for trying to divert a passenger launch to the United States, is ill but refuses to go to the prison clinic with his hands manacled to his waist.

Gregoria Corrales said her son cannot keep down food, has dizzy spells and blurred vision. She says he refuses to go to the clinic because he would be humiliated before other prisoners if he were manacled.

Campos has served 15 years of his sentence for trying to divert the Havana-Regla launch.

Flyers demanding improved conditions appear in prison

GUANTÁNAMO, Cuba, April 29 (Engor Díaz / www.cubanet.org) – Flyers demanding better treatment for prisoners appeared last week in the Combinado de Guantánamo prison, according to one of the inmates.

Rolando Mazo, a common prisoner, said in a telephone call that troops were brought to the prison April 23 and that several prisoners were taken to isolation cells to be questioned by political police.

Police were said to believe that political prisoners Yordis García and Yordis Fuentes were behind the distribution of the flyers.

He said the flyers demanded an improvement in medical attention and the supply of medicines and better telephone communication.

Political prisoner forced to sleep on floor due to overcrowding

GUANTÁNAMO, Cuba, April 29 (Engor Díaz / www.cubane.org) - Because of a shortage of space, political prisoner Julián Antonio Monés has been sleeping on the floor since his transfer to the Combinado de Guantánamo last week, according to an inmate.

“There aren’t a sufficient number of beds in the prison so they have people sleeping on the floor,” said Rolando Mazo, a common prisoner.

Monés, president of the Miguel Valdés Tamayo Human Rights Movement, was sentenced last year to three years in prison for anti-government activities.

Police raid houses where DVDs sold  

HAVANA, Cuba, April 27 (Aini Martín Valero, Agencia Libre Asociada / www.cubanet.org) – Police in the municipality of Guanabacoa allanó last week raided five homes and seized more than one thousand DVDs which were available for rent.

The police, who said the purpose of the raids was to stamp out DVD piracy, detained the owners of the five homes as well as several messengers. They seized four DVD burners and three computers.

The seized DVDs contained movies, musicals and opinion programs.

FLAMUR member freed after three months in prison

HAVANA, Cuba, April 27 (Belinda Salas / www.cubanet.org) -  Rosa Escalona, a member of the Latin American Federation of Rural Women (FLAMUR), was freed last week after spending three months in prison on a charge of disrespect for those in authority.

Escalona was arrested in January after demanding that a public official do something to solve her housing problems since her home was destroyed by a hurricane.

She was released April 21 from the women’s prison in Holguín. 

Hunger striker cited over guests at his home

 SANTA CLARA, Cuba, April 24 (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) – An Interior Ministry officer told ex-political prisoner Jorge Luis García (Antúnez), currently on a hunger strike, that four dissidents were staying illegally in his home.

Capt. Oleida Cepeda went to Antúnez’s home April 16 to inform him that Tamara Pérez, Diosiris Santana, Ernesto Mederos and Carlos Michael Morales were violating the law by being in his home. They were sympathetic participants in the hunger strike that Antúnez started nearly two months ago in an attempt to get the government to lift travel restrictions imposed on him.

Antúnez was given a citation to appear at the Interior Ministry to explain he violation.

Dissident Francisco Chaviano told Cubanacán Press, “The visit by a captain from the Interior Ministry was a pretext to get Antúnez out of his home and to break the fast. I’m in agreement with Jorge Luis that he shouldn’t go to the [Ministry] office.”

4 dissidents prevented from joining hunger striker

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, April 24 (Licet Zamora, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) – Four dissidents from Santa Clara have been prevented from joining ex-political prisoner Jorge Luis García (Antúnez), currently on a hunger strike at his home.

Capt. Yuniel Monteagudo of State Security turned back the dissidents, members of the Democratic Solidarity Party and the Liberal Party of Cuba: Yoel Bencomo, Jorge Luís Artiles, Léster Sánchez, and Bárbaro Fraga. 

 Said Bencomo, “In this country even the right to travel to another municipality in the same province is violated.”

7 detained on suspicion of putting up anti-government posters

HAVANA, Cuba, April 24 (Ana Aguililla / www.cubanet.org) - Arturo Montgomery, spokesman for the Opposition for a New Republic Movement, says political police detained seven members of the organization at the Santiago de Las Vegas bus station last week.

According to Montgomery, the seven were locked up in a jail cell at police headquarters April 21 and questioned for several hours. He said their fingerprints were taken.

A police official said they were suspected of putting up anti-government posters at various places April 15.

Political prisoner diagnosed with pneumonia and hepatitis B 

HAVANA, Cuba, April 23 (Juan Carlos González Leiva / www.cubanet.org) – Political prisoner Abel López, held at the Guantánamo provincial prison, says he has been diagnosed with pneumonia, hepatitis B, and kidney problems.

López was sentenced March 16 to six years imprisonment for allegedly attacking prison guards. He made a telephone call from prison April 15.

López belongs to the Muncipal Democratic Circles (Círculos Democráticos Municipales de Cuba) and the Martian Human Rights Resurrection Movement ( Movimiento de Derechos Humanos Resurrección Martiana).  

Protest staged over seizure of cell phone by police

HAVANA, Cuba, April 23 (Juan Carlos González / www.cubanet.org) – Three dissidents protested in front of provincial government offices in Cienfuegos demanding the return of a cell phone seized by police from of one them.

“We gave the authorities a letter explaining the reason for our protest and we will not leave here until we’ve received a satisfactory reply, “said Ricardo Pupo, whose phone was taken.

Pupo said State Security agents have taken two cell phones from him in the past five months in an attempt to prevent him from making calls overseas in defense of human rights in Cuba.

Independent pedicab driver fined and loses bike

HAVANA, Cuba, April 22 (Víctor Manuel Domínguez, Sindical Press / www.cubanet.org) –Police arrested a member of an independent union, seized the pedicab he used to earn a living and fined him 250 pesos, about half the average monthly salary in Cuba, for operating without a license.

Carmelo Díaz, president of the Confederation of Independent Workers, said Jesús Cordero had repeatedly sought a license to operate his pedicab.

Cordero was operating in Central Havana when he was detained by two plainclothes policemen.

Independent journalist carrying Miami newspaper fined 300 pesos

HAVANA, Cuba, April 22 (Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, CIHPRESS / www.cubanet.org ) – An independent journalist detained outside the U.S. Interests Section while carrying three copies of Miami’s El Nuevo Herald was tried last week on charges of issuing threats and fined 300 pesos, about half the average monthly salary in Cuba.

 During his trial April 16, police said they had arrested Rubén Carty in his home, but he said later he had been arrested on the street and that, besides the newspapers, the police took copies two books banned in Cuba and a copy of a speech given by President Barack Obama.

Only a neighbor, Maria López, was permitted at the one-day closed trial. Carty was not represented by a lawyer. Members of the National Revolutionary Police and State Security were present.

Police agents took photographs of human rights advocates waiting outside the court.

Communist Party member stabs independent journalist

HAVANA, Cuba, April 21 (Aini Martín, Agencia Libre Asociada / www.cubanet.org) - Álvaro Yero, an independent journalist associated with the Agencia Libre Asociada, was stabbed in the throat by a female member of the Communist Party who objected to cries for freedom at a musical beach party attended mainly by foreign tourists.

Yero and four companions were at the tourist beach of Playa Hermosa in Guanabo last Sunday when the disk jockey started to sing “Change! Change!” – used by dissidents wanting a change of government – while 50 balloons with the word were launched. Some in the crowd started shouting “Long live human rights,” “End the embargo” and “We want freedom.”

Communist party member Sara Hernández approached Yero with a fork and stabbed him as she shouted “worm,” “traitor” and other anti-dissident words.

Yero and his friends were taken to the police station but released immediately. The officer on duty said the fork wielder was an odd person.

 Anti-U.S. remarks prohibited during May 1 celebrations  

HAVANA, Cuba, April 21  (Ana Aguililla, www.cubanet.org) –Communist Party officials have told workers and students that anti-American signs and remarks will not be allowed during May 1 celebrations, according to sources.

A government worker in San Antonio de Los Baños, Havana province, said such a message was given to him and his colleagues.

Former political prisoner Tomás Ramos Rodríguez said students at the University of Havana have also been told to watch their remarks and actions.

This would mark the first time that the United States is not attacked May 1 and obviously reflect the President Raúl Castro’s announced willingness to enter into talks with American officials.

 Protesters demand repairs to electrical appliances  

HAVANA, Cuba, April 21 (Iván Sañudo, Agencia Libre Asociada / www.cubanet.org) – A group of residents in the Regla district of Havana staged a protest Saturday at the government’s Popular Power offices demanding repair of domestic appliances that Fidel Castro urged them to buy as part of his “Energy Revolution.”

A voltage surge that day damaged 20 appliances, mainly refrigerators.

Activist sentenced to six years imprisonment

HAVANA, Cuba, April 20 (Ricardo Montalbán / www.cubanet.org) – The director of the Democratic Municipal Circles in Banes, Holguín province, Ángel Luis Santiesteban, has been sentenced to six months in prison for illegally purchasing construction equipment.

 Human rights advocate Martha Díaz said Sate Security agents allowed several dissidents to witness the trial but that Santiesteban was not allowed a lawyer.

An appeal of the sentence has been scheduled for tomorrow.

 Human rights leader continues hunger strike

HAVANA, Cuba, April 20 (Tania Maceda / www.cubanet.org) – Dissident Segundo Rey Cabrera, president of the Cuban Human Rights Committee, said in a telephone call that he was continuing the hunger strike he started April 1.

Cabrera said his health is worsening as a result of the hunger strike, which he’s conducting in his home in Sancti Spíritus.

Cabrera is protesting government restrictions on his movement in Cuba.

Crackdown on players of la Bolita

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, April 20 (Licet Zamora, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) – Police in three patrol cars raided a private home in Santa Clara last week in a crackdown on the illegal numbers game, Bolita.

Police searched the home of Marlén Cervera room by room on April 14, seized a list with the names of 28 players and arrested Cervera.

Cervera was given a warning and released after more than five hours of detention.

Dissidents arrested near home of hunger striker

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, April 17 (Licet Zamora, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) –Two dissidents were arrested while heading for the home of dissident Jorge Luis García Pérez, better known as Antúnez,  who is on a hunger strike.

Amado Ruiz and Donaida Pérez Ruiz were 100 feet from Antúnez’s home in Placetas when they were stopped by two State Security agents.

According to Elia Rosa Moreno, Ruiz’s wife, the pair was charged with disrespect for authority.

Fined for buying bleach to barter for rice

RANCHUELO, Cuba, April 17 (Félix Reyes, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org)  - A man was arrested and fined 200 pesos last week for hoarding 10 gallons of bleach.

Félix Mena had purchased the bleach April 13 in Santa Clara with the intention of bartering it  for rice in Aguada de Pasajeros in Cienfuegos province.

Mena was stopped by a police patrol car and taken to the police station in Ranchuelo.

The fine was the equivalent of half a month’s average salary in Cuba.

Sentenced to jail because of a “Down with Fidel” tattoo

HAVANA, Cuba, April 15  (Tania Maceda/ www.cubanet.org) - Maikel  Bencomo, serving a two-year prison sentence for disrespect for authority, says he was arrested eight times before being tried over a tattoo on his back that said “Down with Fidel.”

Bencomo, 27, is serving his sentence at the Calderón a work camp in Havana province. He was sentenced last year.

Bencom was arrested in Artesima in Pinar del Río province as he was about to depart for Havana to take part in a pacifist demonstration. “The political police have a policy of detaining you so you can’t travel if they learn you’re going to participate in some activity,” he said in a telephone interview.  “They cited me, arrested me and threw me in jail.”

He said he was beaten in jail and tried the next day at the municipal court without a lawyer to defend him. “The same agent who beat me told me that if I didn’t remove the tattoo saying ‘Down with Fidel’ they were going to arrest me when I get out of prison and charge me with being a social danger,” he said.

Bencomo said he still has the tattoo.

Political prisoners prevented from attending bishop’s mass

HAVANA, Cuba, April 15 (Miriam Leiva / www.cubanet.org) – Six political prisoners who were scheduled to attend an Easter mass Saturday at the Pinar del Río provincial prison were prevented from doing so because they refused to wear prison uniforms, according to the wife of one of the men.

Arrangements had been made for 15 prisoners, some from other prisons, to attend the ceremony presided over by the Bishop of Pinar del Río, Jorge Enrique Serpa.

Elsa González, wife of Víctor Rolando Arroyo, said her husband and five other prisoners were prevented from attending mass because they refused to wear prison uniforms.

She said the bishop asked to speak to the prisoners, but only one of them, Diosdado González Marrero, was brought in. He was wearing dark pants and a white shirt. Prison officials told the bishop the order to deny entry to the six came from their superiors.

Youth found shot to death at Havana military facility

HAVANA, Cuba, April 15 (Roberto de Jesús Guerra- CIHPRESS / www.cubanet.org) – Carlos Alberto Padilla said the body of his 18-year-old son, Luís Alberto Padilla Boach, riddled with 13 bullet holes, was turned over to the family last Sunday after being found at a military facility.

“He was unrecognizable,” said Padilla. “They shot him in the head, the stomach and the feet. We don’t know what happened since my son was not a delinquent and he wasn’t doing his Obligatory Military Service. We don’t know how he ended at the place where he was found because it’s a military unit.”

Padilla said authorities have not given him any explanation for his son’s death.

His body was found at a military facility near the 1580 Prison in the Havana municipality of San Miguel del Padrón.

Prisoner detected with HIV virus in solitary confinement

HAVANA, Cuba, April 15  (Ignacio Estrada Cepero - CIHPRESS / www.cubanet.org) –The Cuban Human Rights Commission that deals with AIDS victims says a prisoner was placed in solitary confinement at the Cerámica Roja Prison in Camagüey after the HIV virus was detected.

The commission advised the Ministry of Public Health on Tuesday about the case of Georbis Matos Pérez, 21. It also protested his confinement to the Ministries of the Interior and Justice.

The commission said Matos Pérez has spent 11 days in solitary confinement.

Jailed human rights advocate on hunger strike

HAVANA, Cuba, April 14 (Miguel Iturria Savón / www.cubanet.org) – The wife of political prisoner Juan A. Bermúdez, serving a four-year sentence, says he husband started a hunger strike April 6.

Neris Castillo said he husband declared the strike after being put in solitary confinement for protesting the beating of a prisoner by three guards at the Pre jail in Santa Clara.

Bermúdez, vice president of the Cuban Human Rights Committee, was sentenced November 21, 2007 for anti-government activities.

Dissident accused of stealing sugar from his workplace

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, April  13 (Licet Zamora, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) – A police agent fined Ariel Suárez, regional coordinator of the Democratic Solidarity Party,  1,000 pesos for allegedly stealing over 200 pounds of white sugar from a warehouse at the government’s agroindustrial complex where he works.

At a meeting with officials of the Ciudad Caracas complex and police, Suárez denied the charge, saying he had never left his post on the day of the alleged theft.

When police officer Fidel Yanes wrote out the fine, the equivalent of about three months of average salary, Suárez refused to sign the document.

Santa Clara said to have TB outbreak

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, April 13  (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) – There are more than a dozen cases of tuberculosis at the José Luis Miranda children’s hospital in Santa Clara, according to sources at the province’s Medical College.

“The official press at no time has alluded to this outbreak because, without doubt, they have orders from above to hide what is happening, “said an orthopedic specialist.

Public health workers and others who have been in direct contact with the tuberculosis patients have been given vaccinations.

Campaign against foreign currency establishments 

HAVANA, Cuba, April 10 (Belinda Salas / www.cubanet.org) - Magaly Norvis Otero, an activist of the Latin American Federation of Rural Women (FLAMUR), says she was threatened in her home this week by two political policemen because of her participation in a campaign against the forced use of foreign currencies.

Norvis Otero said the policemen came Monday morning and warned her there would be serious consequences if she continued her campaign. “I told the officials that with our actions were demanding the right of all Cubans, including them, to pay in Cuban currency at all establishments in the country, and that there is a citizens’ petition to which the government has not given a reply,” she said.

Along with seven other activists, Norvis Otero went to the Piropo resuarant April 1 where they insisted on paying in Cuban pesos and not a foreign currency, an action or whciht hey were fined. They refused to pay the fines.

Phone company can seize mobile phones

HAVANA, Cuba, April 10  (Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, Hablemos Press / www.cubanet.org)  – Dissident Segundo Rey Cabrera González says he was told by ETECSA, the telephone company, that a mobile phone service could be seized if used for immoral or anti-government purposes.

Cabrera, president of the Cuban Human Rights Committee, said the warning was given to him and José Ramón Borges Serrano by an employee when they went to the phone company office in Sancti Spíritus.

 “The woman who attended top us in the office of ETECSA told us that the there is a clause in the contract for mobile phones that says when there is use that is ‘contrary to the morals, sovereignty or security of the Cuban state’ ETECSA can take back the phone,” Cabrera said.

Police seized Cabrera’s phone when he went to Guantánamo and Santiago de Cuba provinces to promote civil society activities.

Independent union member threatened by police 

HAVANA, Cuba, April 10 (Reinaldo Cosano, Sindical Press / www.cubanet.org) – Guillermo Antonio  Figueredo , a member of the Victoria Independent Works Union in Las Tunas province, said State Security agent Jaime Matos detained, questioned and threatened him at police headquarters.

Figueredo, 36, said he was threatened with the loss of his job and expulsion from university, where he is studying epidemiology, if he continued union activities.

Figueredo is a health inspector with the Ministry of Public Health in the municipality of Manatí

Independent journalist said placed in solitary confinement

CAMAGUEY, Cuba, April 9 (Roberto de Jesús Guerra, www.cubanet.org) – Imprisoned  independent journalist Jorge Alberto Liriano Linares was placed in solitary confinement at the Cerámica Roja prison and beaten by guards, according to a telephone call made Wednesday by common prisoner Lázaro Molina.

Molina said the guards had seized writings made by Liriano Linares of injustices occurring in the prison.

Molina made the remarks to  Centro de Información Hablemos Press (CIPRESS), one of the independent new agencies in Cuba.

Liriano Linares has continued to smuggle his news reports out of the prison.

Human rights advocate on hunger strike

HAVANA, Cuba, April 9 (Juan Carlos González (www.cubanet.org) – Human rights defender Rey Cabrera says he is on a hunger strike at his home in an attempt to get authorities to return his cell phone and video camera and allow him free movement within Cuba.

Cabrera, 45, sent out word that he has only taken a daily glass of water and no food for the past six days. He said State Security agents will have to remove his body from his home in Sancti Spiritus unless his demands are met.

Cabrera, president of the Cuba Human Rights Committee, was arrested several times last month and had his phone and camera taken on one of the occasions.

Police prevent study group on constitution and penal code

HAVANA, Cuba, April 9 (Álvaro Yero / www.cubanet.org) – State Security agents backed by police and rapid response brigades prevented human rights advocates from entering the home of former political prisoner Emilio Leyva for a study session last week.

A total of 36 agents and police were stationed at street corners from 6:30 a.m. onwards April 2 to prevent anyone from reaching Leyva’s home.

The purpose of the meeting was to attend a class given by Alfredo Vallín, president of the Cuban Juridical Association, on the constitution and penal code of Cuba.

Independent journalist prevent from attending activity

HAVANA, Cuba, April 9 (Álvaro Yero / www.cubanet.org) – Independent journalist Olienny Valladares says he was prevented from attending an activity associated with a Political Prisoner Congress held in Miami last week.

Valladares said in a telephone interview that he was taken to a National Revolutionary Police station by the local chief and two other officers April 3.

He said he was told he could not leave his home and to try and so would result in his imprisonment. He said a file was opened on him as a “danger to society” and he was threatened with a four-year prison term.

________________________________________________________________________

Lift the Cuba Embargo?
By Humberto (Bert) Corzo*

“It is necessary to impose financial, economic and material restrictions to dictatorships, so that they will not take roots for long years….Diplomatic and morals measures do not work against dictatorships, because these make fun of the Governments and the population”.                                                 Fidel Castro

(Excerpt from the book “Fidel Castro and Human Rights”, Editora Política, Havana, Cuba, 1988)

________________________________________________________________________

Independent journalist beaten by State Security agents

HAVANA, Cuba, April 7 (Aini Martín, Agencia Libre Asociada / www.cubanet.org) – Independent journalist Álvaro Yero says he was beaten on Sunday by State Security agents as he was going to be a meeting dissidents – and he has a bruised face and broken nose to prove it.

Yero and two companions were approaching the home of Liviod Fernández when they were detained and taken away in three police cars. They were going to participate in activities associated with a congress of former political prisoners being held in the United States.

According to Yero, he was taken to an area adjoining Lenin Park where an unidentified official beat him up.

Student accused of anti-government activities

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, April 7  (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) – Polive arrested a student named Ángel Peai on charges of activities against the government.

According to Peai’s mother, Amilet Marrero, her son’s arrest arrested followed an argument between him and police agent Dennis Gilart over a personal matter during which she said her son was beaten.

The agent called for reinforcements and Peai was taken to the Cimarrones police station in Santiago de Cuba.

His mother said her son supported the revolution and had never before had problems with authorities.

Baseball player dropped by team for political reasons

Félix Reyes

Ranchuelo, Cuba. April 3. (CubaNet) – Yorky la Rosa, one of the starters for the Villa Clara team in the Cuban baseball league was dropped by the team, presumably for political reasons, according to a resolution handed down March 27 in Santa Clara.

Sports writer and commentator Normando Hernández explained over provincial radio station CMHW: “Our ball players must be partisans of the Revolution, and they must be unconditionally loyal to Fidel and Raúl; otherwise Cuban fans, who are partisans of the Revolution, don't want to see them play.”

La Rosa, a left fielder and designated hitter for the team, is said to have wanted to remain on the team, but was dropped on the orders of José Luis Rabel, lieutenant colonel of the Department of State Security in charge of sports at the national level, presumably because La Rosa had been making arrangements to visit his wife who lives in Spain.

Police Target Street Racing

Leafar Pérez

Havana, Cuba. April 1. (CubaNet) – A concerted raid by police and officers of the Technical Investigations Department (DTI) the night of March 27 resulted in the arrest of at least 20 drivers and the confiscation of several cars and motorcycles.

Edilberto Rodríguez said he witnessed the arrests of the racers along the Avenida de Rancho Boyeros, between Santa Catalina and Avenida Camagüey.

The late night races along deserted streets have been going on for years. Many here believe authorities have not curbed them because those involved are often the children of Communist party and government officials.