Marzo
Conga Line Follows Funeral of Dance Troupe Founder
Aini Martín
Havana, Cuba. March 30 (CubaNet) – You could say Alberto Mir came home to die, and the dance troupe he founded and represented for years gave him a suitable send off, playing and dancing behind his funeral procession all the way to the cemetery.
Mir, the founder of the “comparsa” Los Guaracheros de Regla, had lately been living in Mexico, where he acted as the troupe's agent. He arrived in Havana March 25, and died the next day after suffering a respiratory arrest.
A comparsa is a group of musicians and dancers who come together, primarily at carnival time, to perform as a marching troupe in the streets, the sort of thing one associates with Carnival in Rio, or for that matter, in Havana.
By Mir's wish, his comparsa, costumes and all, led the townspeople of Regla, the town across the bay from Havana proper, in his funeral parade.
Several Families Evicted in Urban Renewal Drive
José Ramón Pupo Nieves
Holguín, Cuba. March 30. (CubaNet) – Several families were evicted from their makeshift houses in the eastern Cuban city of Holguín in an apparent attempt to erradicate a whole community of about 80 such lodgings erected catch-as-catch-can with mostly found materials.
A small task force consisting of police, ambulances from the public health department and municipal services trucks went to work early on March 25 behind the cigarrette factory that lies between Villa Nueva and La Aduana in the outskirts of the city.
They quickly established a routine, evicting the settlers, removing their meager belongings, and quickly dismantling the structures the residents had precariously put together with cardboard, wood, plastic and any other materials they had been able to scavenge and recycle.
And they were doing well, having gone through eight houses in short order, until they came to Felix's.
Because Felix had been either luckier or more enterprising than his neighbors, and had build his shack mostly out of brick.
Felix later complained his family's belongings had been taken to a warehouse some 20 kilometers away, and left there with no security whatsoever
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Dissident beaten and left in countryside
HOLGUÍN, Cuba, March 27 (María Antonia Hidalgo, Holguín Press / www.cubanet.org) - Police detained dissident Arnaldo Expósito last week and abandoned him in a rural area after questioning him.
According to Expósito, he was going downtown March 20 in a horse-drawn carriage when he was stopped by police. He said he shouted “Freedom for Cuba” and “Down with the Castro dictatorship” as he was being placed in a police cruiser.
He said he was questioned for 12 hours at the police station and then taken to a rural area known as Los Angeles, where he was dropped off. He said he was beaten to the ground and told he had to stop his opposition to the government.
“Neither blows nor jail nor death will keep me from my fight, “he said.
U.N. urged to seek freedom of independent journalists
HAVANA, Cuba, March 27 de (Aleaga Pesant / www.cubanet.org) – The Cuban Citizens Committee, based in Santiago de Cuba, has asked U.N. Secretary-general Ban Ki to use diplomatic means to obtain the release of independent journalists imprisoned since March 18, 2003 when the government cracked down on dissidents.
The appeal was made in a letter signed by Guillermo Espinosa, who has been held under house arrest because of his dissident activities.
The letter said Cuban President Raúl Castro has not fulfilled promises of change and is not obeying Human Rights agreements to which Cuba is a signatory.
Women protest by paying in pesos instead of dollars
HAVANA, Cuba, March 27 (Julio Beltrán, Agencia Libre Asociada / www.cubanet.org) - A group of dissident women protested against the government last week by refusing to pay the bill in hard currency at a restaurant that does not accept Cuban pesos.
The women were members of the Latin American Federation of Rural Women and other opposition groups.
The waiter at the outlet of the Di-tu fast-food chain initially refused to accept the pesos March 20 but relented when he realized the women were not going to pay in U.S. dollars or another hard currency. “I hope these are worth something here,” the waiter said, referring to the pesos.
Sugar-cane workers protest longer hours
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, March 27 (Licet Zamora, Cubanacán Press, www.cubanet.org / Sugar-cane workers at the Palmar plantation in Santa Isabel de las Lajas, Cienfuegos province, have protested management’s decision o increase the work day to 24 hours worked in two shifts.
Workers said their salaries are already low, they’re not supplied with gloves and there is little lighting at night, which can lead to accidents.
Worker Gustavo Pérez said plantation administrator manager Ariel de los Santos wants to increase production.
Students taught computer course without Internet access
HAVANA, March 25 (Álvaro Yero / www.cubanet.org) – Students taking a computer course have been complaining that the professors don’t have access to the Internet in the classroom.
According to students at the Joven Club de Computación y Electrónica, the professors only have access to a local network and not the Internet.
“How can you teach something without being able to put it into practice?” asked a student named Ricardo.
The director of a Joven Club in the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo said all of the clubs follow the same method: the professor has Internet access to develop the course but not in the classroom.
Dissidents ask to be imprisoned in show of solidarity
HAVANA, Cuba, March 24 (Asela Vega / www.cubanet.org) – More than 30 dissidents went to five police stations in the capital on the anniversary of the arrest of the Group of 75 and asked that they be imprisoned themselves in an act of solidarity.
One of them, Dr. Darsi Ferrer, said the police at the Aguilera station knew beforehand of their planned activity March 18. “But they didn’t try to stop us,” he said. “On the contrary, they tried to avoid a scandal.”
Ferrer said that five of them spent several hours in front of the station. “That was the least we could do for our imprisoned brothers,” he said.
Most of the 75 remain imprisoned, serving sentences of up to 28 years for anti-government protests and other activities. They include independent jounrlaists and librarians.
Detention in Santiago de Cuba
HAVANA, Cuba, March 23 (Aleaga Pesant / www.cubanet.org) - Political police in Santiago de Cuba detained for more than eight hours last week various dissidents and human rights advocates.
Among those detained was Guillermo Espinosa, who supports the Center of Applied Marketing and Political Publicity (Centro de Aplicación de Marketing y Publicidad Política) in Santiago de Cuba. Following his detention March 15 he was placed under house arrest
Police Palma Soriano detained Raudel Ávila, provincial delegate of the dissident Workers Confederation of Cuba (Confederación Obrera de Cuba).
According to Ávila, the detentions were in response to activities in eastern Cuba marking the sixth anniversary of the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of 75 in what has become known as the Black Spring of 2003.
Former political prisoner denied employment
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, March 20 (Licet Zamora, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) – A government fish plant in Playa Victoria advised former political prisoner Rolando Ferrer that he was turned down for employment because he was not considered “trustworthy.”
When the Empresa de Acopio de la Pesca advised Ferrer March 15 that his job application was being denied, he sought an appointment with the human resources to find out why. He was told the Interior Ministry had determined he was not “trustworthy” because he had been imprisoned for anti-revolutionary activities.
He had been imprisoned in 2001 on charges of making public information affecting Cuba’s national security.
Anti-Castro epithets appear on walls of jail
RANCHUELO, Cuba, March 20 (Félix Reyes, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Anti-Castro epithets appeared on the walls of the Alambrada de Manacas jail last week, prompting the questioning of eight prisoners.
One of the suspected prisoners named Rivera said in a telephone call that epithets saving “Down with Fidel” appeared in the dining room and were seen by many inmates.
River and seven other prisoners were taken to State Security headquarters in Santa Clara for questioning.
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Freedom House Urges Cuba to Free Political Prisoners on Black Spring Anniversary
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Illegal cock fight raided
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, March 19 (Yoel Espinosa / www.cubanet.org) – Police raided a clandestine cock fight, illegal in Cuba, and arrested 48 people last weekend, most of them owners.
Some 60 police officers, backed by patrol cars and paddy wagons, swooped in one the fight that took place near a factory on the outskirts of Santa Clara.
Carlos Díaz, an owner of a fighting cock, said police fired shots into the air as bettors and owners fled, leaving behind cars, bicycles and horse-drawn carriages.
He said those arrested were taken to police stations in the city and were fined and given warnings about future participation in cock fights.
Pasteurization plant closed by leak
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, March 19 (Yoel Espinosa / www.cubanet.org) – The pasteurization plant in Santa Clara was closed last week because of a leak in the cooling system.
The escape of ammonia prompted the plant to halt all production of milk, yogurt, butter, cheese and ice cream, said plant manager Pablo Fernández.
Fresh milk sold under the ration book was replaced by powdered milk for those children under seven. Those from seven to 14 received a mixture of powdered milk, chocolate and sugar.
Fernández said repairs would take at least 10 days.
The plant supplies residents of Santa Clara, Manicaragua, Ranchuelo and Santo Domingo.
Fined for transporting boat to leave Cuba
HAVANA, Cuba, March 18 (Álvaro Yero / www.cubanet.org) – Dissident Rogelio Hernández was fined 1,000 pesos, the equivalent of about three average monthly salaries, for illegally using a state truck to carry a home-made boat in which he and seven others planned to use to leave Cuba.
Hernández and the others were stopped by the National Revolutionary Police January 5 en route to the beach at Tarará east of Havana.
He was also place under house arrest until his trial on charges of trying to illegally leave the country.
Imprisoned journalist feels at times he’s dying
HAVANA, Cuba, March 17 (Tania Maceda / www.cubanet.org) - Independent journalist Normando Hernández, serving a 25-year prison sentence for his anti-government writing, says his health is deteriorating and at times he feels he’s about to die.
Hernández was returned to the Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey at the end of February after spending a month at the Carlos J. Finlay Hospital in Havana. He said none of the promised tests were carried out there.
“I feel so bad that at times I think I’m going to die,” he said in a telephone call March 8. “They didn’t do anything for me and now they’re not even giving me my medicine.
Hernández, 39, suffers from hypertension, intestinal parasites and chronic diarrhea, among other things.
He was among 75 dissidents arrested and sentenced in 2003. He has been declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.
Sentenced to four years for prostitution
HAVANA, Cuba, March 17 (Iván Sañudo, Agencia Libre Asociada / www.cubanet.org) - Yomara Rodríguez, 23, was sentenced last week to four years in prison for “harassing tourists” and prostitution.
She was arrested by two police agents last month in the lobby of Capri Hotel in Vedado after being summoned from the hotel’s night club.
Her arrest and sentencing was the latest in a government campaign against prostitution in Cuba.
Rodríguez confessed to prostitution after being questioned at a police station. She will serve sentence at the Red Flag prison camp in Havana province.
Independent journalist detained after videoconference
HAVANA, Cuba, March 17 (Roberto de Jesús Guerra / www.cubanet.org) – Independent journalist Reinier Vera was detained by State Security agents last week as he left the U.S. Interests Section after attending a videoconference workshop given by Florida International University.
José Manuel Albares, who also attended the weekly journalism workshop, witnessed the March 11 incident. “Since the new course started they detain someone after the videoconference,” he said. “Last week it was Carlos Ríos.”
Prisoners denied World Baseball Classic TV
ISLA DE LA JUVENTUD, Cuba, March 17 (Lamasiel Gutiérrrez, Isla Press / www.cubanet.org) – lieut. Osmany Chacón, the director of the Guayabo Prison on the Isle of Youth, has forbidden telecasts of the World Baseball Classic, much to the displeasure of the 500 inmates.
Rolando Jiménez, serving a 12-year sentence, said he was placed in solitary confinement for protesting the lack of coverage. “You can’t get the channel that’s transmitting the games,” he said during a family visit.
“This abusive measure has bothered the prisoners who are fed up with the political manipulation to which they submitted on a daily basis,” he said.
Jiménez said the director and other prison officials say the baseball coverage would entertain the prisoners and detract from the “battle of ideas” in classes they have to attend.
Fifteen dissidents arrested in Santa Clara
HAVANA, Cuba, March 16 (Juan Carlos González Leiva / www.cubanet.org) – Fifteen members of the Central Opposition Coalition (Coalición Central Opositora) (CCO) were arrested in Santa Clara over the weekend when they tried to halt traffic in front of a State Security building in a show of support for protesting hunger strikes.
Among those arrested were coalition president Idania Yanes Contreras and Yesmy Elena Mena Zurbano, Martha Díaz Rondón, Diagzán Saavedra Prat, Félix Reyes Gutiérrez and Ernesto Mederos Arrozarena.
The hunger strikers are seeking the release of political prisoners and Cuban fulfillment of international human rights agreements.
Sentenced to 18 months for anti-government remarks
HAVANA, Cuba, March 16 (Tania Maceda / www.cubanet.org) - Wilmer Sánchez has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for shouting anti-Castro epithets and others against a municipal president in Holguín province.
He is serving the sentence in the Cuba Sí, prison in Holguín.
Human rights activist imprisoned
HAVANA, Cuba, March 16 (Juan Carlos González Leiva / www.cubanet.org) - Nelson Curbelo, a member of the Independent Alternative Option Movement, has been imprisoned after being cited by the police March 3 and is on a hunger strike, according to another prisoner.
Eduardo Marcos Pacheco, an imprisoned human rights advocate, said Pacheco has been on a hunger strike for six days at the Combinado del Sur Prison in Matanzas.
According to Pacheco, Curbelo, 48, told him months ago that State Security was after him for his human rights activities.
Labor unrest in Cienfuegos province
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, March 16 (Licet Zamora, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) Some 250 workers at the Empresa de Comunales in Lajas, Cienfuegos province, went on strike March 10 to protest a proposed salary reduction.
According to worker Omar Suarez, company director Pedro Pablo Monzón told a meeting of workers that salaries were going to be cut by 30 % and a food basket eliminated.
Suarez said 50 workers asked to be released and 250 declared a work stoppage.
Son of dissident arrested and fined
HAVANA, Cuba, March 13 (Reynaldo Cosano Alén, Sindical Press / www.cubanet.org) - José Carlos Ramos, 29, was arrested on the street after admitting to the local police chief in Perico, Matanzas province, that he was the son of a known dissident.
“The officer went up to Ramos and asked him if he was the son of Rigoberto Ramos,” said Osvaldo Castillo, provincial delegate of the National Independent Works Confederation (CONIC). “Ramos said he was and was immediately arrested and taken to his house where 33 heads of garlic, 20 onions and a box of tomatoes were seized.”
Ramos was fined 500 pesos – a little more than the equivalent of the average monthly salary in Cuba – for selling without a license.
Ramos’s father is an official of the Ángel Cofiño independent union, affiliated with CONIC.
Three dissidents prevented from traveling
SANTA CLARA, Cuba March 13 (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) – State Security agents arrested dissidents Idania Yanes, Alejandro Tur and Félix Reyes this week when they were about to leave the city.
Yanes, president of the Central Opposotion Coalition (Coalición Central Opositora), said they were arrested Tuesday as she was leaving her home with Tur and Ramos. She said one of the agents said she and her colleagues were forbidden from traveling to the capital for a meeting of the opposition Transition Agenda group.
Yanes told the agents they were not planning to go to Havana but to Placetas to support three opposition strikers, Jorge Luis García Pérez and Iris and Diosiris Santana.
They were released after being held for four hours.
Son fired over father’s dissident activities
HAVANA, Cuba, March 11 (Leafar Pérez / www.cubanet.org) - Damián Alejandro Pereda, 17, lost his job at the Alejo Carpentier printing plant for refusing to inform on his dissident father.
Police captain Alberto Cautín summoned the son in January and demanded he cooperate with State Security against his father, Ramón de Jesús Pereda. When he refused, he was fired from his janitorial job.
Capt. Cautín later threatened to have Damián Pereda tried on charges of being a danger to society, common accusations against dissidents. The captain told members of the block committee in the area where Pereda lives that the son supported the anti-government activities of his father, who has distributed human rights literature and the reports of independent journalists.
Police presence increases in Havana
HAVANA, Cuba, March 11 (Leafar Pérez / www.cubanet.org) – Greater police presence and actions against dissidents have been noted in the capital the last few days, presumably because of the upcoming anniversary of the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of 75 dissidents in 2003.
As well, heads of Committees for the Defense of the Revolution have been meeting with their members, retired workers, Communist Party members and military veterans, asking them to be on the lookout for illegal activities. They were told to pay special attention the putting up of anti-government posters.
For its part, State Security has increased its vigilance of opposition groups, cracking down on what it considers to be illegal trips to the city.
Dissident denied permission to travel
HAVANA, Cuba, March 11 (Asela Vega / www.cubanet.org) – Dissident Rafael Ernesto Ávila, president of the Young Cuba Popular Party, was refused permission to attend conferences this month in Athens and Miami at the invitation of the We Care Foundation.
Ávila said that he filled in a request for a passport at the Emigration Office in the capital and was told that he’d be given a reply later.
“I went alternate days to Emigration to see if they’d let me travel and they always told me to return another day,” he said. “On Monday they said: ‘You can’t travel unless you’re leaving for good.’”
Ávila said he had been denied permission in 2000 to attend a conference in Ecuador.
Independent union organized detained
HAVANA, Cuba, March 10 (Víctor Manuel Domínguez, Sindical Press / www.cubanet.org) – State Security agents picked up Minaldo Ramos, an organizer for the Confederation of Independent Workers, at his home and put him on a bus to an unknown destination after questioning him at the police station, according to dissidient Carmelo Díaz Fernández.
Díaz said Ramos’s detention probably was related to his independent union activities and the fact that anti-government posters were found last Sunday on walls near his home.
The agents seized Ramos at his home at Rafael No. 406 in Central Havana.
Authorities refuse to comment on his detention.
Police arrest self-employed vendors
HAVANA, Cuba, March 10 (Álvaro Yero / www.cubanet.org) - At least eight self-employed vendors were arrested in a roundup carried out by 30 policemen, according to Armando Carbonell, one of those picked up.
“It was so quick that the people were frightened,” Carbonell said of the raid that took place in La Palma in an area set aside by the state for vendors. “They threw me to the ground as if I was a delinquent.”
Some of the vendors fled but others were arrested and put in a truck for the ride to the police station. If they did not have current licenses to operate, they were fined between 500 and 2,000 pesos, the equivalent of one to four average monthly salaries in Cuba.
It was the third such raid in the area in less than a month.
Dissident arrested trying to flee Cuba by sea
HAVANA, Cuba, March 10 (Álvaro Yero / www.cubanet.org) – Dissident Rogelio Hernández has been placed under house arrest pending trial after being intercepted by frontier guards as he tried to leave Cuba by sea.
Hernández said he was held for 72 hours by State Security and questioned before being sent home to await trial.
He said State Security agents threatened him with prison and a fine of 10,000 pesos.
Contaminated water found at hospital
ISLA DE LA JUVENTUD, Cuba, March 9 (Lamasiel Gutiérrez, Isla Press / www.cubanet.org) - The director of the Héroes de Baire Hospital has suspended all surgical operations because of contaminated water in a cistern.
According to the director, Dr. Sonia González, the contamination was discovered February 26.
The hospital has sent patients home pending repair of the cistern.
Independent journalists harassed by police
HAVANA, Cuba, March 9 (Leafar Pérez / www.cubanet.org) – Independent journalists who participate in a certificate program offered by Florida International University have been warned by State Security agents that they’re defying the government.
The journalists have been detained, searched and had material confiscated as a result of the weekly workshops delivered by videoconference to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana by instructors from FIU’s International Media Center.
Independent journalists who say they’ve been harassed include Heriberto Liranza, Rafael Rodríguez, Omayda Padrón, Mario Hechavarría, Mario José Delgado, Francisco Chaviano, Carlos Ríos and Ariel Ramos.
Independent journalist released by police
HAVANA, Cuba, March 6 (Moises Leonardo Rodríguez / www.cubanet.org) - Independent journalist Roberto de Jesús Guerra, accused of putting up anti-government posters, has been freed after four days of detention.
Guerra denied he had put up any posters, telling police he was a journalist. They said that as a journalist he should know who did the posting.
He was arrested March 1 and accused of putting up 11 posters in Central Havana and three in Old Havana.
Guerra said State Security agents questioned him eight times before he was released on Wednesday.
Guerra had been arrested in July of 2005 and held for seven months.
Political prisoner placed in solitary confinement
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, March 6 (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press /
www.cubanet.org) - Political prisoner Pedro Argüelles, 60, has been put in solitary confinement at the Canaleta Prison in Ciego de Ávila province for refusing to wear the same clothing as common criminals.
Fellow prisoner Pablo Pacheco said Argüelles had asked Lt. Col. Reinerio Díaz, head of the prison, that he be placed in the infirmary because he was feeling ill. Pacheco said the colonel told Guerra he’d first have to put on the uniform of a common prisoner, whereupon Argüelles said he was a political prisoner with the right to wear clothing unlike that of common prisoners.
Pacheco said Argüelles was placed in solitary confinement after arguing with the colonel. He has been serving a 20-year sentence since 2003.
Two women reported beaten in public by police
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, March 4 (Yesmy Elena Mena, Villa Clara Press / www.cubanet.org) – Two women were beaten on a street by four policemen, according to a dissident who said she witnessed the incident.
Regla Anicia Cárdenas, a member of the Cuban Nationalist Civic Movement, said the incident occurred February 21 when the women, identified as Irina Borrero and Ivette Méndez, were passing in front of her window.
She said the police seized seven bottles of vinegar the women were carrying and that the beating occurred when the women protested. The pair was handcuffed and taken to the police station or booking.
Dissidents prevented from attending study group
HAVANA, Cuba,March 3 (Juan Mario Rodríguez / www.cubanet.org) – State Security agents last week prevented two dissidents from participating in a study group at the headquarters of the Hard Line Front (Frente Línea Dura) movement.
Humberto Martínez and Roberto Arruebo were 150 feet from the headquarters when agents dressed in civilian clothing detained them.
The agents demanded identification and told the pair that the session had been suspended. The study group meets every Thursday.
Two agents then led them away from the immediate area and warned them against participating in future meetings.
Workers complain of poor quality boots
HAVANA, Cuba, March 3 (Leafar Pérez / www.cubanet.org) – Farm and construction workers have been complaining that work boots provided by the government come apart after two weeks of wear.
Workers at the Saturnino Aneiro shoe factory in Morón said the poor quality of the boots is due to the poor quality of the leather and the fact that the machinery used is 30 years ago and in bad conditions.
Víctor Pérez, director of Empresa de Calzado y Cuero, said there’s a similar situation at 10 other shoe plants in Cuba. “We’re working with what is assigned us by the Ministry of Light Industry,” he said.
Dissident jailed in Baracoa for public remarks
HAVANA, Cuba, March 3 (Tania Maceda, www.cubanet.org) – Dissident Alejandro Blanco, who was arrested February 14 in Baracoa while protesting against the government in a public park, has been transferred to the Pasos de Cuba Prison in Baracoa.
Blanco, a member of the Young Cubans for Democracy Movement, has been detained many times in the past. He once told the head of the municipal political police, “I don’t know where you Communists are going to go when the government falls. The people are going to look for you under rocks.”
Kéiber Rodríguez, human rights advocate and president of the John Paul II Reconciliation and Peace Movement, said he hopes Blanco will soon be put on trial. He’s accused of attempts against the government and faces a possible five –year sentence.
Dissidents prevented from attending study group
HAVANA, Cuba,March 3 (Juan Mario Rodríguez / www.cubanet.org) – State Security agents last week prevented two dissidents from participating in a study group at the headquarters of the Hard Line Front (Frente Línea Dura) movement.
Humberto Martínez and Roberto Arruebo were 150 feet from the headquarters when agents dressed in civilian clothing detained them.
The agents demanded identification and told the pair that the session had been suspended. The study group meets every Thursday.
Two agents then led them away from the immediate area and warned them against participating in future meetings.
Workers complain of poor quality boots
HAVANA, Cuba, March 3 (Leafar Pérez / www.cubanet.org) – Farm and construction workers have been complaining that work boots provided by the government come apart after two weeks of wear.
Workers at the Saturnino Aneiro shoe factory in Morón said the poor quality of the boots is due to the poor quality of the leather and the fact that the machinery used is 30 years ago and in bad conditions.
Víctor Pérez, director of Empresa de Calzado y Cuero, said there’s a similar situation at 10 other shoe plants in Cuba. “We’re working with what is assigned us by the Ministry of Light Industry,” he said.
Dissident jailed in Baracoa for public remarks
HAVANA, Cuba, March 3 (Tania Maceda, www.cubanet.org) – Dissident Alejandro Blanco, who was arrested February 14 in Baracoa while protesting against the government in a public park, has been transferred to the Pasos de Cuba Prison in Baracoa.
Blanco, a member of the Young Cubans for Democracy Movement, has been detained many times in the past. He once told the head of the municipal political police, “I don’t know where you Communists are going to go when the government falls. The people are going to look for you under rocks.”
Kéiber Rodríguez, human rights advocate and president of the John Paul II Reconciliation and Peace Movement, said he hopes Blanco will soon be put on trial. He’s accused of attempts against the government and faces a possible five –year sentence.
Inmate of AIDS prison reported beaten
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, March 2 (Guillermo Fariñas, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) – Inmate Ignacio Isain was beaten by a re-educator at the Santa Clara Territorial AIDS Prison, according to another prisoner.
Omar Ferreira said Robles asked guards February 22 to use a telephone because he was worried about an ailing relative and it was his to make calls. He said re-educator Sub. Lt. Nelson Gama took a rubber truncheon from a guard and beat Robles, saying, “Shut up! Here we’re the only ones who can give permission.”
Ferreira said Robles asked to be taken to the prison hospital but was placed in solitary confinement instead.
Pitcher who tried to leave Cuba begins training
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, March 2 (Licet Zamora, Cubanacán Press / www.cubanet.org) - Villa Clara team pitcher Juan Yasser Serrano, 19, who was detained for allegedly trying to leave Cuba, has started to train at the local Augusto César Sandino stadium.
Family members accompanied Yasser to a meeting with the Provincial Baseball Commission where they presented a State Security document stating there were no charges pending against the player and no investigation underway. The document said Yasser had been interrogated.
Former trainer Luis Artiles said he was told Cuban baseball authorities have not yet taken a decision on whether Yasser can resume playing.
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