H.E. Fidel Castro Ruz
President
Office of the President
Consejo de Estado
Plaza de la Revolución
Ciudad de la Habana
Republic of Cuba
Fax: (011.537) 81.22.71
Your Excellency:
Under normal circumstances, we might rejoice at the news that two Cuban journalists imprisoned since March of last year have been released by your government. The provisional freedom given these two in no way atones for Cuba’s appalling record of suppressing journalists and others who express dissent — a record which has earned your government almost universal condemnation since the crack-down on Cuban activists in March, 2003.
Manuel Vázquez Portal, 53, and Carmelo Díaz Fernández, 66, have been paroled, apparently because of ill health, which is not surprising since they endured dreadful conditions in jail and went on hunger strikes to protest their treatment. They cannot be considered free because their long sentences — 18 years in the case of Vázquez Portal and 16 in the case of Díaz Fernández — have not been revoked. They are certainly not free to practice journalism as they might anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere.
According to the diary Vázquez Portal smuggled out of prison, he was given small amounts of rotten food, held in a filthy cell with rats and no lighting. Still he had the courage to undertake three hunger strikes last year.
The release of these two still leaves Cuba as the second worst offender against freedom of the press in the world, second only to China in the number of journalists held in jail. When your government conducted a round-up of 75 dissidents in March, 2003 — while the world’s attention was turned to the war in Iraq — 28 were independent journalists who had struggled to publish news of Cuba that did not conform to official versions of events. Within days of their arrest, with limited access to lawyers, the 28 were tried behind closed doors for acting “against the independence of the territorial integrity of the state” or for acts “aimed at subverting the internal order of the Nation and destroying the political, economic, and social system.” They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 14 to 27 years. They were sent to high-security prisons far from their homes. They were at times placed in cells with violent criminals who were encouraged to mistreat them.
In spite of the inhuman treatment of these prisoners, independent Cuban journalists who have so far escaped imprisonment — although they certainly endure threats and the possibility of jail — continue to try to publish the truth. One way or another, the truth about Cuba will be heard.
Respectfully yours,
Jeremy Main Kevin McDermott
Freedom of the Press Committee
cc: Hon. Christine Chanet
c/o Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax: (011.41.22) 917-9022
Dagoberto Rodriguez Barrera
Principal Officer
c/o Cuban Interests Section
Embassy of Switzerland
2900 Cathedral Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 387-2564
Ambassador Bruno Rodríguez
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Republic Cuba
to the United Nations
315 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Fax: (212) 689-9073
James C. Cason
Chief of Mission
c/o U.S. Interests Section
Embassy of Switzerland
Calzada between L and M Streets
Vedado Seccion
Havana
Cuba
Fax: (011.537) 33.37.00