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Two
journalists and four dissidents on hunger
strike in prison
Police briefly detain editor of dissident
magazine
Independent journalist Claudia Márquez
Linares released
Claudia Márquez Linares, who
earlier this month brought out a new issue
of the independent magazine De Cuba, was
freed after being held for two hours. She
told Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency
she had been taken to the offices of the
6th police unit in the Mariano neighbourhood
of Havana and told that she could not publish
any further issues of the magazine. "They
said I would have to face the consequences
if I did." The police also told her
she had not been arrested as a threat but
as a "warning" not to work as
a journalist any more. She said on her release
that she would continue to do so however.
Reporters
Without Borders, October 30, 2003.
29.10.2003 - Reporters Without Borders
today voiced deep concern about the state
of health of two independent journalists
and four other dissidents who began a hunger
strike on 18 October in the Holguín
provincial penitentiary in central Cuba,
where they are all held, to protest against
the placing of Iván Hernández
Carrillo, another independent journalist,
in a "punishment cell" the previous
day.
The six hunger strikers are journalists
Adolfo Fernández Sainz and Mario
Enrique Mayo and dissidents Antonio Díaz
Sánchez, Alfredo Domínguez
Batista, Angel Moya Acosta and Arnaldo Ramos
Lauzurique.
"This new hunger strike is prompted
by the deplorable conditions in which journalists
and prisoners of conscience are being held,"
said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general
Robert Ménard. Hernández Carrillo
was put in a punishment cell just for protesting
against the refusal of the prison authorities
to give him the treatment he needs for his
high blood pressure, the relatives of fellow
detainees said.
Several imprisoned journalists have complained
about the lack of medical treatment. Fernández
Sainz, Mayo and Hernández Carrillo
already staged a hunger strike in August
to protest against prison conditions.
Reporters Without Borders is also concerned
about Claudia Márquez Linares, the
editor of the bimonthly dissident magazine
De Cuba and Reporters Without Borders' correspondent.
According to information received by the
organisation, she was at the home of Laura
Pollán, the wife of imprisoned journalist
Hector Maseda Gutiérrez, yesterday
when security agents arrived and threatened
to arrest her for "contempt" if
she refused to come with them. They said
they just wanted to "chat" with
her for a few hours.
Publication of De Cuba halted after the
arrest in March of its founders, Ricardo
González and Raul Rivero, but Márquez
Linares managed to bring out a new issue
on 1 October. By harassing her now, the
authorities are again trying to put a stop
to the circulation of independent news and
information, Reporters Without Borders said.
Hunger strikers Fernández Sainz
and Mayo are serving sentences of 15 and
20 years respectively. Like Hernández
Carrillo, Fernández Sainz worked
for the independent news agency Patria.
He was also a correspondent for the Russian
human rights news agency PRIMA News. Mayo
worked for the Félix Varela independent
news agency. The other hunger strikers,
Díaz Sánchez, Domínguez
Batista, Moya Acosta and Ramos Lauzurique,
are serving terms of 20, 14, 20 and 18 years
respectively. Domínguez Batista's
wife Melba Santana and Mayo's wife Maidelin
Guerra were received by a prison official
when they went to the prison on 27 October.
He told them Hernández Carrillo was
being punished for showing disrespect to
a guard. Under the rules, the punishment
could last three months. He could then be
transferred to another prison. According
to Santana, a "punishment cell"
is a very small one with no light or ventilation.
Santana said her husband and the other
five are continuing their hunger strike.
None of them was allowed to telephone their
family on 28 October as these calls are
only permitted when they "respect the
rules." Fernández Sainz's wife
Julia Nuñez said she was worried
about her husband's health as he already
seemed very thin the last time she was allowed
to visit him, on 7 October. She will not
be allowed to make another visit until 3
January.
Fernández Sainz and Mayo began their
previous hunger strike together with Hernández
Carrillo on 15 August to demand the right
of inmates with chronic illnesses to receive
medicines and an adequate diet. They called
off the strike on 25 August when the authorities
agreed to provide Mayo with a diet appropriate
to his state of health. Fernández
Sainz lost 15 kg in the course of the strike.
Independent journalists Manuel Vázquez
Portal, Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta and Normando
Hernández González, who are
in Boniatico prison in the eastern city
of Santiago de Cuba, also began a hunger
strike on 31 August in protest against prison
condition. As a result, they were transferred
to another prison.
Cuba is now the world's biggest prison
for journalists, with 30 currently detained.
Twenty-six of them were arrested along with
50 dissidents in an unprecedented crackdown
in March. In a ranking of 166 countries
worldwide according to respect for press
freedom, published by Reporters Without
Borders on 20 October, Cuba was in second
from last position, ahead only of North
Korea.
Reporters Without Borders
defends imprisoned journalists and press
freedom throughout the world, as well as
the right to inform the public and to be
informed, in accordance with Article 19
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Reporters Without Borders has nine national
sections (in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany,
Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the
United Kingdom), representatives in Abidjan,
Bangkok, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New
York, Tokyo and Washington and more than
a hundred correspondents worldwide.
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