H.E. Fidel Castro Ruz
President
Office of the President
Havana
Republic of Cuba
Vienna, 8 April 2003
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, wishes to condemn in the strongest possible terms the jail sentences handed down on 7 April to 36 of 78 detained dissidents and independent journalists.
According to information before IPI, 14 courts across the country convicted the political dissidents of “working with a foreign power to undermine the government” and gave them sentences ranging from 12 to 27 years in jail. We understand that the journalist Raúl Rivero, director of the independent news agency CubaPress and one of IPI’s 50 “World Press Freedom Heroes”, received a 20 year sentence, as did Ricardo González, director of the Sociedad de Periodistas Manuel Márquez Sterling, an association of some 40 independent journalists created in May 2002, and journalist Héctor Maseda. Omar Rodríguez Saludes, director of the news agency Nueva Prensa, received a 27 year prison term, the longest sentence handed down.
Prosecutors had asked for sentences ranging from 20 years to life for the dissidents under Law 88 for the Protection of Cuba’s National Independence and Economy and Article 91 of the Penal Code, which provides for prison sentences or the death penalty for those who act against “the independence or the territorial integrity of the State.”
This latest crackdown on Cuba’s dissidents began on 18 March with mass arrests, house searches, and the confiscation of cameras, computers, typewriters and fax machines, followed last week by a series of one-day trials. In all, 78 people, including 28 journalists, were arrested. In addition to those already mentioned, other journalists arrested included José Luis García Paneque of the news agency Libertad, Jorge Olivera of the news agency Havana Press, and Pedro Argüelles Morán of the Cooperativa Avileńa de Periodistas Independientes. According to our sources, 71 dissidents have already been convicted and seven trials are still underway.
Approximately half of the 78 dissidents on trial had organised a petition drive for political and human rights reforms in Cuba. The drive, known as the “Varela Project”, gathered more than 11,000 signatures and united the country’s small dissident movement into the first major internal challenge to the Communist regime in four decades.
IPI strongly condemns this latest move against Cuba’s dissidents, apparently meant to silence once and for all the critical voice of the regime’s opponents while world attention is focused on the war in Iraq, and urges Your Excellency to release the dissidents immediately and unconditionally. We further urge you to ensure that Cuba’s independent journalists are allowed to carry out their profession without fear of harassment and intimidation.
We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director
