No Surrender by Independent Journalists, Five Years on from “Black Spring”
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Cuba No surrender by independent journalists, five years on from “black spring” March 2008 An investigation by Claire Voeux, with the assistance of Benoît Hervieu Reporters Without Borders - Americas desk 47, rue Vivienne - 75002 Paris Tél : (33) 1 44 83 84 84 - Fax : (33) 1 45 23 11 51 E-mail : [email protected] Web : www.rsf.org Five years ago, between 18-24 March 2003, police arrested 90 opponents of the Fidel Castro regime, However, 55 of the ‘group of 75 of whom were then sentenced to prison terms 75’ arrested in 2003, are still ranging from 14 to 30 years for “damaging Cuba’s languishing in Cuban jails, territorial integrity and economy”. Among them including 19 journalists. And were 27 journalists.At the time it looked like this those who enjoy relative “black spring” would put an end to independent freedom, are systematically journalism in communist Cuba. But it didn’t work excluded from public posts, Alejandro González Raga out like that at all. monitored, bullied and above all prevented from disseminating news to Cubans, to whom they chie- Today, most players agree fly address themselves. The island’s some 11 mil- that there are as least as lion population has to content itself with Granma many independent journalists and Juventud Rebelde, the two press organs of the in Cuba as there were before Cuban Communist Party, which every morning March 2003, which was seen disgorge Castroist rhetoric giving them no chance as the high noon of the era of of access to any alternative news. the free press. More impor- tantly, the quality of their wri- “My husband is very sick” ting has improved. News Raúl Castro agencies were created and networks forged.These Eight of the 27 journalists imprisoned during were the conclusions of a special correspondent “black spring” have been released in dribs and for Reporters Without Borders who carried out drabs. “This was not a humanitarian gesture but an on-the-spot investigation in the last week of rather a trade off in exchange for the good will of om “black spring” February 2008, coinciding with investiture de Raúl Europe and Spain in particular”, says Laura Pollán, Castro as head of state. Those interviewed were wife of Hector Maseda Gutiérrez, one of the co- independent journalists, political opponents, fami- founders of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro agency, lies of imprisoned journalists and foreign corres- who is serving a 20-year s on fr pondents. Reporters Without Borders is not offi- sentence in Matanzas pri- cially allowed to visit Cuba. son. The eight who have ear been released were granted “The simple fact of no longer sensing Fidel’s threa- a “release on licence” - a e y tening form over our heads has helped ease the conditional release on pressure”, says Yoani Sánchez, one of the country’s health grounds. “But if you most influential bloggers. “The government does put one foot wrong, you are not give ground of its own free will.We are seizing Hector Maseda Gutiérrez ts, fiv back in that hole again”, said the space for ourselves”. The retirement from Oscar Espinosa Chepe, political life of the Líder Máximo - temporarily journalist and economist, who has not allowed this since the end of July 2006 and finally with the risk to stop him writing. appointment of his brother Raúl to the presidency of the State Council - has almost imperceptibly lif- Political prisoners have a separate status. “They ted both spirits and pens. Journalists, many of are more closely watched than the others,” says whom came into the profession via human rights Laura Pollán. But most of them endure the same activism and opposition to the Castro regime, say poor hygiene and appalling food as the common- they are no longer afraid. law prisoners. Some are imprisoned outside their own province.“It’s a way of punishing the families”, Expected for years, Raúl Castro’s signing of the sighs Laura Pollán, who makes the journey from two UN human rights pacts (one relating to eco- Havana to Matanzas, 90 kilometres east of the nomic, social and cultural rights, the other on civil capital every two months for a family visit and and political rights) certainly is a sign of goodwill. every three months for a conjugal visit. At 75, In his investiture speech before the National Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, Cuba’s oldest journalist Assembly of Popular Power on 24 February, the prisoner, has found the strength to write a book, former army chief become head of state, even Enterrados vivos (Buried Alive) published in Miami, said, “The best solutions come of out of the describing his prison conditions and daily life exchange of deeply-held opinions”.A declaration, inside.“He wrote it very small on sheets of paper ender by independent journalis practically a promise, that was carefully scrutini- which he rolled up like cigarettes, said Pollán.“He sed by political opponents. The release on 15 had them passed to common-law prisoners, who February of four prisoners of conscience who are less watched, who gave them to their family immediately left for exile Spain, including indepen- members who in their turn gave them to me.” dent journalist Alejandro González Raga, was a Pollán typed them out on a laptop computer Cuba No surr first step. which she was given by an Argentinean tourist 1 then sent them to Miami, to are supported by the Miami-based NGO, made up Manuel Vázquez Portal, ano- of Cuban exiles, “Plantados hasta la libertad y la ther journalist of the group democracia en Cuba”, which sends each of them of 75, who was released in 50 dollars a month, which they spend mainly on June 2004. It was published buying food for their imprisoned relatives and the with the help of the Florida- travel costs of prison visits.The authorities deduct based Grupo de Apoyo a la 10% of the money in tax when it is changed into Democracia (Support Group convertible pesos. to Democracy). Manuel Vázquez Portal “People got scared after Reporters Without Borders’ the black spring” correspondent, Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso, who is The number of independent journalists in Cuba is imprisoned at the hard to establish with any certainty. There are Combinado del Este jail in believed to be around 150.There are in any event Havana, is not doing so well. Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso more of them than before March 2003. The only His wife, Alida Viso, said he portal, based in Florida, Cubanet, groups 64 Cuba- has had four surgical operations since January based contributors from 11 diffe- 2005.“My husband is very sick”, says an angry Viso, rent agencies. Also Florida-based, who has had to drop her own journalistic work, the Nueva Prensa Cubana (NPC) for lack of a telephone. At the beginning of regularly broadcasts brief radio February 2008 she put in a request for his release spots by around 20 journalists. In on licence. “He has kept his morale up though, Cuba itself, the press freedom om “black spring” despite everything,” she said. The 58-year-old, organisation, Asociacion Pro founder of the Manuel Marquez Sterling Society has José Antonio Libertad de Prensa (Association for secretly written two poems (Historia sangrada in Fornaris Free Press - APLP), founded in 2005 and Hombres sin rostros in 2006), in which he 2005 and chaired by José Antonio Fornaris, has 69 s on fr speaks out against being deprived of his freedom. members. These figures of course provide only a He spent a long time in convalescence at the mili- rough idea. Some journalists can belong to several ear tary hospital at the Combinado del Este, but was of these bodies, but it does show how indepen- sent back to his cell when his wife asked for a sus- dent journalism has recovered since March 2003. e y pension of his sentence for medical reasons. The “black spring” nevertheless struck a terrible Wives, mothers and blow against independent journalism. Stunned by sisters of ‘the 75’, The ts, fiv the imprisonment of 27 of their colleagues, many “Ladies in White” journalists decided to throw in the towel or to go demonstrate every into exile. “At the time, people got scared and Sunday after mass at stopped writing,” recalled Miriam Leiva, one of the the Santa Rita church leaders of the Ladies in White. Then they began Ladies in White in Havana and are fre- writing articles again, first anonymously and then quently subjected to harassment.The group, along using their by-lines once again.” with Reporters Without Borders, was awarded the 2005 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by Some agencies, such as the Manuel Marquez the European Parliament. The “Ladies” were pre- Sterling Society, did not survive the crackdown. vented until the last moment from entering Havana Founded in 2001 by Reporters Without Borders’s cathedral where the Vatican number two, Cardinal Cuba correspondent, Ricardo González, senten- Tarcisio Bertone, who visited Cuba from 20-26 ced to 20 years in 2003 and still in jail, this centre February was due to officiate at a mass.They were for training and editing, managed to print three finally allowed to attend the celebration but were numbers of the magazine De Cuba but other agen- kept at a distance. Fifteen Spanish, Bosnian, Swedish cies, which stopped work for a and Peruvian women planning to join the ‘Ladies’ while, reappeared.These include on their Sunday march were prevented by police Cuba Press, founded by Raúl from leaving their hotel on the eve of Worldwide Rivero - released at the end of Human Rights Day on 9 December 2007, and were 2004 and exiled to Spain the fol- subsequently expelled from the country.