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Castro's Jailed Librarians
December 25, 2004, Wall
St. Journal Editorial.
It wasn't the Santa Clauses and candy canes
decking the halls of the U.S. diplomatic
office in Havana that prompted Fidel Castro
to order the Christmas decorations dismantled
there. It was the light display forming
the number 75.
That's how many political dissidents Castro
rounded up in March 2003 and threw into
Cuban jails. At their trials, these librarians,
journalists and peaceful political activists
received sentences of up to 28 years. Now
a loosely connected international movement
of librarians is refusing to forget their
Cuban colleagues.
One inspiring example comes from the town
of Vermillion, South Dakota, whose public
library is sponsoring the independent --
that is, not government-run -- Dulce Maria
Loynaz Library in Havana. The Loynaz Library
was one of the institutions singled out
during the 2003 crackdown. The director's
husband, Hector Palacios, was arrested and
sentenced to 25 years in prison. Most of
the library's books were confiscated by
the police.
The French cities of Paris and Strasbourg
also support independent libraries in Cuba.
In once-Communist Poland, the Librarians
Association has issued an eloquent statement
calling for an end to the repression: "The
actions of the Cuban authorities relate
to the worst traditions of repressing the
freedom of thought, expression and information
exchange, exercised by all regimes throughout
the history," the statement reads.
Meanwhile, in Havana, Castro insists there
is no censorship.
He, too, has the support of some of the
world's librarians. The International Federation
of Library Associations has just named an
"official" Cuban librarian to
its Intellectual Freedom Committee, which
is to say, they've picked someone who supports
government censorship. Earlier this year
the American Library Association's governing
council rejected a resolution asking Castro
for the immediate release of the imprisoned
librarians. Some ALA leaders refuse to recognize
the independent librarians because they
don't have official library degrees, which
of course they can get only from Fidel.
Mark Wetmore, a Vermillion Library trustee
tells us, "It diminishes all our libraries
a little if we know that there are people
being persecuted for trying to operate free,
uncensored ones and we don't at least try
to do something about it." It's too
bad more of the world's librarians don't
also see a moral obligation to their Cuban
brethren who want to read freely.
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