After the Black Spring, Cuba’s new repression
After the Black Spring, Cuba's new repression
When the last of 29 journalists jailed in a notorious 2003 crackdown was finally freed this year, it signaled to many the end of a dark era. But Cuban authorities are still persecuting independent journalists through arbitrary arrests, beatings, and intimidation. A CPJ special report by Karen PhillipsPublished July 6, 2011
Juan González Febles, director of the independent news website Primavera Digital, was running an errand last spring when he came upon a news story: Police were climbing onto his neighbors' roofs in Havana to remove satellite television dishes that the government considers illegal because they pick up uncensored stations from abroad.
When Febles started taking pictures with his cell phone, officers quickly arrested him and took him to a neighborhood police station, where he was held for seven hours and made to erase all of his photos of the dish seizures, a highly unpopular police activity. Febles, a former librarian who took up independent journalism in 1998 and now runs the overseas-hosted website, told CPJ that he has become accustomed to detentions, which number in the dozens over the years, but that he is still bothered that his phone is tapped and that he's followed by security agents in the streets. The agents sometimes stop him, Febles said, and relay what they've heard in his private phone conversations.
Such is the state of repression in Cuba today. As President Raúl Castro's government seeks greater international engagement, it has freed in the last year more than 20 imprisoned independent journalists and numerous other political detainees who had been held since the notorious Black Spring crackdown of 2003. Government officials talk of political and economic reform, pointing to a plan to introduce high-speed Internet service to the island this summer. But though the government has changed tactics in suppressing independent news and opinion, it has not abandoned repressive practices intended to stifle the free flow of information.
A CPJ investigation has found that the government persists in aggressively persecuting critical journalists with methods that include arbitrary arrests, short-term detentions, beatings, smear campaigns, surveillance, and social sanctions. Today's tactics have yet to attract widespread international attention because they are lower in profile than the Black Spring crackdown, but the government's oppressive actions are ongoing and significant.
CPJ examined government activities in March and April 2011, two months with sensitive political milestones, and found that journalists were targeted in more than 50 instances of repression. The majority of cases involved arrests by state security agents or police officers, according to CPJ research and documentation by the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation and Hablemos Press, a news agency that focuses on human rights. Most frequently, these journalists were detained on their way to cover a demonstration or political event and were held in local police stations for hours or days. In at least 11 cases, the arrests were carried out with violence, CPJ research shows.
During this period, more than a dozen journalists endured house arrest, preventing them from reporting on the Communist Party Congress in April and the eighth anniversary in March of the Black Spring crackdown that led to the imprisonment of dozens of journalists and dissidents. Although no journalists have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms in the last year, Cuban authorities in May ominously sentenced six political dissidents to prison sentences of two to five years.
"Political repression in Cuba has undergone a metamorphosis," said Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz, president of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation. "Before, repression was based on long prison sentences. Although the Cuban government still subjects dissidents to jail terms, it has changed substantially from the Black Spring, which was characterized by long-term sentences." More typical now, he said, "are many arrests by the political police, lasting hours, days, or weeks."
Perhaps counter-intuitively, the scheduled arrival of broadband Internet is not expected to improve free expression or access to information. Because the project will improve the island's relatively few existing Internet connections—which are predominantly in government offices, universities, and other officially approved locations—but not extend connectivity to the general public, the government and its legion of online bloggers will gain an even greater technological advantage over critical voices. Independent journalists will be forced to continue to use expensive Internet access at hotels, pirated connections bought on the black market, or the politically-tinged access offered at foreign embassies.
"Official bloggers already benefit from free or low-cost Internet connections," said Laritza Diversent, a lawyer and an independent blogger. "Now, they will have the advantage of a high-speed connection as well."
A vast, repressive legal structure
Magaly Norvis Suárez, a correspondent with Hablemos Press, has been detained three times this year by police and state security agents. On one occasion, she was slapped and kicked by police officers. Another time, officers took her ID card and held it for several days, essentially condemning her to house arrest because the law requires individuals to carry identification in public. During one detention, security agents told her that if she continued to practice journalism, she could be imprisoned and lose custody of her children. Her 15-year-old daughter was harassed so relentlessly at school that she dropped out.
Speaking with CPJ from Havana, Norvis Suárez said the psychological impact is significant. "It's very difficult to work under the threat of imprisonment," she said, "wondering if I'm imprisoned, what will happen to my family, my husband, my house." Talk of political reform aside, the laws that have allowed Cuba to imprison reporters remain very much in place. They are written in Article 91 of the penal code, which imposes lengthy prison sentences or death for those who act against "the independence or the territorial integrity of the state," and Law 88 for the Protection of Cuba's National Independence and Economy, which imposes up to 20 years in prison for committing acts "aimed at subverting the internal order of the nation and destroying its political, economic, and social system."
This restrictive legal framework applies to the flow of news and information itself. All authorized domestic news media are controlled by the Communist Party, which recognizes freedom of the press only "in accordance with the goals of the socialist society." Domestic news outlets are state-owned and supervised by the Communist Party's Department of Revolutionary Orientation. Online information is restricted by an inter-ministry commission charged with "regulating the information that comes from worldwide information webs." Article 19 of Resolution 179 of 2008 of the Ministry of Communication and Computing states that Internet service providers are obligated to "adopt the necessary measures to impede access to sites with content that is contrary to social interest, ethics, and good customs; as well as the use of applications that affect the integrity and security of the state."
Independent journalists are forced to operate outside this official framework. News websites such as Hablemos Press and Primavera Digital are hosted overseas, with editors in Cuba uploading articles and updating the sites at embassies or hotels. Other independent journalists file stories, often by email, to news websites such as Cubanet and Diario de Cuba that are based and edited overseas, often by Cuban exiles. Still other independent journalists operate their own blogs, which are hosted overseas and updated through embassies or costly hotel connections.
Independent journalists pay another high price: They continue to be subjected to "acts of repudiation," the term for rallies at which government supporters gather outside the homes of people perceived as being critical of the state. In extreme cases, journalists and political dissidents are prevented from leaving their homes by chanting crowds of government supporters, as was the case with a large demonstration held on the eighth anniversary of the Black Spring crackdown. Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, a recently freed independent journalist and recipient of the 2008 CPJ International Press Freedom Award, and his wife, Laura Pollán, a well-known human rights defender, told CPJ that more than 200 pro-government supporters had gathered outside their home. The couple was hosting a gathering of newly freed political prisoners and members of the Ladies in White, a group composed of the former prisoners' spouses and other loved ones. The demonstrators stayed for two days, playing the national anthem and revolutionary songs at high volume from loud speakers and preventing anyone from leaving the gathering.
State television and, increasingly, the Internet have provided platforms for smear campaigns against critical journalists and dissidents. The government proudly announced in February that it had enlisted roughly 1,000 bloggers to denounce critical journalists; many of these "official" bloggers are government employees, and all enjoy easy, low-cost access to official Internet connections.
A slickly produced new television series, "Las Razones de Cuba," which is also streamed online, presents independent journalists and dissidents as enemies of the state. Using fuzzy footage of "suspicious" activities (such as journalists entering a foreign embassy), a menacing soundtrack, and interviews with official "experts," the program seeks to portray critics as criminals bent on toppling the state. Journalist Dagoberto Valdés, who directs the online newsmagazine Convivencia, and the prominent blogger Yoani Sánchez have been singled out on the program.
A digital battle for free expression
Perhaps surprisingly in a country with few private Internet connections—overall penetration is said to be only about 14 percent—the struggle for free expression is being waged almost exclusively in digital media. Despite the many hurdles to online access, Cuba has a vibrant alternative blogosphere that consists of about 40 critical journalistic blogs, all of which are hosted on overseas servers. Blogging and increasingly Twitter offer platforms not only for reflection, analysis, and reporting, but also for responding to government smears.
In response to "Las Razones de Cuba," the blogger Sánchez has produced her own talk show, "Las Razones Ciudadanas" which is video-streamed online. In each episode, civil society members discuss topics such as independent journalism. Reinaldo Escobar, a blogger and the husband of Sánchez, noted in one episode that the advent of mobile telephones had transformed independent journalism on the island, allowing witnesses and sources to communicate more easily with journalists and enabling reporters to post content on Twitter. It was only in 2008 that the government allowed consumer sales of personal electronic goods such as mobile phones.
"Twitter is the true protective shield for the independent press and alternative bloggers in Cuba," said the exiled Cuban journalist Manuel Vázquez Portal, himself a former political prisoner. Still, sending a text or posting a Twitter message from a cell phone is costly, about US$1 in a country where the average monthly income is equivalent to US$15 to US$30. Government supporters have been quick to use Twitter as well. For each Twitter message critical of state policy, there is an onslaught of disparaging messages from pro-government users.
The government has been intent on keeping digital access tilted in its favor. Private Internet connections are rare in Cuba. Resolution 180 of 2003 allows only those with Cuban convertible currency—a monetary form generally used by foreigners—to obtain individual Internet access, which must be approved by the government-owned Internet service provider ETECSA. Government officials, intellectuals with government ties, and some academics and doctors are among the relatively few Cubans with authorized passwords to the state's Internet service.
Cubans without private connections can turn to state-run Internet cafés, but users there can expect identity checks, heavy surveillance, and restrictions on access to non-Cuban sites. The cost of uncensored connections at hotels is about US$8 per hour; government-issued Internet passwords can be purchased on black market sites, but they, too, are expensive and are monitored for political content. Many journalists interviewed by CPJ make daily or weekly trips to foreign embassies to use free Internet connections, a practice that puts them under further government scrutiny. Journalists working in the provinces, with few hotels and no embassies, have an even harder time accessing the Web.
A US$70 million fiber-optic cable project, financed by the Venezuelan government and laid this year by the French company Alcatel-Lucent, is likely to tilt the field even more in the government's direction. The project, scheduled to become operational this summer, will increase Internet connection speeds exponentially but will have limited reach, improving existing connections in government offices, universities, and other official sites rather than increasing overall connectivity, according to the official newspaper Granma. (The importance the Cuban government attaches to restrictive connectivity was evident in the December 2009 arrest of Alan Gross, a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development who is serving a 15-year sentence on charges of illegally helping Cubans set up Internet connections.)
"While the introduction of broadband is potentially a giant step forward for connectivity, if it is implemented under the same rules of control, suspicion, and institutional access it could very well be used as another mechanism of control," said Ted Henken, a Cuba expert and professor of black and Hispanic studies at City University of New York. In April, Henken was detained by state security agents and told he could not return to the island after he had met with independent Cuban bloggers.
On reform, talk but little action
The government has been unwilling to turn away from its longstanding suppression of free speech—even as its leaders talk of economic and political change. In fall 2010, President Castro announced plans to reduce the state work force by more than half a million employees and increase licenses for private enterprises. By March 2011, 171,000 new private business licenses had been issued, press reports said, although independent economists told CPJ that high fees and a shortage of raw materials were stifling the effort. During the Communist Party Congress in April, Castro officially replaced his brother Fidel as head of the Communist Party in the first leadership change since the party's founding in 1965. He also announced the introduction of term limits for party officials.
And in March, Cuba released the last of the 29 journalists imprisoned during the Black Spring crackdown, when the government swept up dozens of dissidents and handed them prison sentences of up to 27 years. The release of detainees followed negotiations between the Cuban government and the Catholic Church, with the help of Spanish diplomats. But freedom has not been without a high cost: Most of the freed journalists and their families were forced to leave their homeland for Spain, where their resettlement has been filled with economic and professional challenges. Three jailed journalists who refused to go into exile were released on a form of parole that leaves them vulnerable to re-arrest.
Cuban journalists and human rights defenders expressed great skepticism that economic changes on the island would be accompanied any time soon by improvements in press freedom. The experiences of independent reporter Dania Virgen García bolster that view.
"It seems like just about every two weeks they threaten me, they detain me, or I have to spend the night in jail," said Virgen García, whose reporting appears on her blog and on the Miami-based news website Cubanet. "I know every police station in Havana." Virgen García has faced arrest, smear campaigns, and physical assault for her reporting on human rights abuses and substandard prison conditions. Recently she awoke to a group of schoolchildren and teachers shouting pro-Castro slogans and insults outside her home.
In April, while on her way to cover a meeting of ex-political prisoners in Havana, Virgen García was arrested by state security agents and taken to La Lisa police station, she told CPJ in a phone interview. During the ordeal, she said, she was slapped on the face and manhandled by police agents and doused with pepper spray by a prison guard. Virgen García was released six hours later, but suffered extensive bruising and persistent eye inflammation.
If the revolving jailhouse door of low-level repression seems more benign than lengthy prison terms, the death in May of dissident Juan Wilfredo Soto gives one pause. Soto, a member of the Central Opposition Coalition and a former political prisoner, was arrested by two police officers when he refused to leave a public park. After handcuffing Soto, police beat him with batons, according to independent Cuban press reports. Soto was released from custody but died days later from what officials called "multiple organ failure due to pancreatitis," an assertion met with disbelief by independent journalists and opposition groups. International rights groups and governments called on Cuban authorities to commission an independent inquiry, but Havana did not publicly respond.
Among those calling for an independent investigation was the European Parliament, illustrating the sometimes-conflicting impulses on both sides of the Atlantic. Although the European Union restricted diplomatic relations and development cooperation with Cuba from 2003 to 2008, the EU has since opened a political dialogue with Havana, and the European Commission has provided the island with millions in aid. In 2010, the Commission allocated 20 million euros (US$28.5 million) for food security, environmental adaptation, and professional and academic exchanges, according to the European External Action Service.
But Havana has yet to secure its most-sought goal with the EU: the undoing of the Common Position, an EU-wide policy adopted in 1996 that conditions full relations with the island on Havana's progress on human rights and democracy. The repeal of the Common Position would normalize diplomatic relations and solidify development cooperation for the long term. In February, Cuba's minister of foreign affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, met in Brussels with the EU's foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, for the fifth in a series of meetings begun in 2008 to explore the future of EU-Cuba relations. Reiterating Havana's long-held position, Rodríguez said relations should be normalized without "interference in the internal affairs of states," international press reports said. The intransigence implied by such a statement does not bode well for human rights or press freedom.
"There are a lot of obstacles to normalizing relations at this time," said Susanne Gratius, an expert on EU-Latin American policy at FRIDE, a Madrid-based foreign policy institute. As obstacles, she cited "the authoritarian nature of the regime, human rights, and political rights, where there has been no change despite the recent economic reforms." To repeal the Common Position, Gratius noted, consensus would have to be reached among the EU's 27 member states, which have divergent views on Cuba. Sweden, Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic are particularly opposed to abandoning the Common Position on human rights and political grounds.
"It's always the same story: You have some progress, and then you have a step back," Gratius said of Cuba. "I think in the long run there is a movement toward political opening, but you still have these reversals that come with human rights abuses."
Karen Phillips, a freelance writer, has served as CPJ's journalist assistance associate and, most recently, as the research associate for CPJ's Americas program.
CPJ's RecommendationsTo the Cuban government
• End the use of detention, physical violence, surveillance, and smear campaigns against independent journalists and bloggers.
• Repeal Article 91 of the penal code and Law 88 for the Protection of Cuba's National Independence and Economy, provisions used by the government to unjustly imprison independent journalists and political dissidents.
• As a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, fully meet the obligation to allow journalists to work freely and without fear of reprisal.
• Remove all legal barriers to individual Internet access, and allow bloggers to host their sites on Cuban domains.
• With the arrival of high-speed Internet, extend access to the population at large, including journalists and bloggers.
• Eliminate all conditions on the release of journalists detained during the Black Spring. Vacate parole for the newly freed journalists who remain in Cuba. Allow exiled journalists to return to the island without condition.To the International Community
To the U.N. Human Rights Council
• Hold the Cuban government accountable for its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
• Urge Cuba to review trial processes and travel permit arrangements to ensure they conform to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
• The U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of expression should request authorization to assess the state of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Cuba and report findings and recommendations.
To the European Union
• Press the government to heed its call to grant freedom of information and expression, including Internet access, to all Cubans.
• Urge Cuban authorities to lift conditions on newly released political prisoners so they are indeed free and not vulnerable to re-imprisonment.
• In the evaluation of the Common Position on Cuba, predicate future dialogue with Cuban authorities on substantial and specific improvements. Those improvements should include the implementation of international human rights covenants signed by Cuba, and the granting to all Cubans of freedom of expression and access of information through all media, including the Internet.
• Create a welcome environment throughout the European Union for Cuban dissidents released from prison but forced into exile. Facilitate their access to EU-funded social and training programs.
To the Organization of American States
• While Cuba has put aside rejoining the Organization of American States, any future participation in the OAS must ensure that Cuba conform to OAS principles, including the right to freedom of expression and access to information. In the event Cuba joins the OAS, the organization must ensure Cuba's compliance with international freedom of expression standards.
• All OAS member states should promote a vigorous debate on human rights violations in Cuba, including restrictions to Internet access.
• The OAS rapporteur on freedom of expression should request authorization to assess the state of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Cuba and report findings and recommendations.
To the technology and blogging community:
• Continue to support Cuban bloggers by publicizing their work and linking to their blogs.
• Companies that provide technology infrastructure to Cuba must ensure their work product is not used to restrict freedom of expression. Companies should follow the principles established by Global Network Initiative, which seeks to ensure that technology companies uphold international freedom of expression standards.
• Support social media applications that are popular in Cuba.
To the U.S. government:
• In accord with the April 2009 directive issued by President Barack Obama, the administration and Congress should allow U.S. companies that commit to Global Network Initiative principles to provide digital support and infrastructure to Cubans. The 2009 directive was intended to increase the free flow of information to the Cuban people and expand communications links between the United States and Cuba.
• Allow U.S. companies to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the United States and Cuba.
• Encourage information technology and social media companies to enable Internet chat services in Cuba, as it is now allowed under U.S. regulations.
• Ensure that U.S. policy is open and transparent in relation to its support for dissidents.
July 6, 2011 9:00 AM ET
http://www.cpj.org/reports/2011/07/after-the-black-spring-cubas-new-repression.php
In Cuba, the Voice of a Blog Generation
In Cuba, the Voice of a Blog GenerationDesmond Boylan/ReutersPublished: July 5, 2011
Ms. Sánchez's blog, Generation Y, chronicles daily life under Castro.
"The content of the book entitled 'Free Cuba' transgresses against the general interests of the nation, in that it argues that certain political and economic changes are necessary in Cuba in order for its citizens to enjoy greater material well-being and attain personal fulfillment," stated the document, which Ms. Sánchez posted on her Web site. Such positions "are extremes totally contrary to the principles of our society."
Outside her homeland, though, Ms. Sánchez's writing is free of such censorship, and she has emerged as an important new voice, both literary and political. Published in the United States in May under the title "Havana Real" (Melville House), her book draws on the same collection of sketches of daily life in Cuba — a dreary, enervating routine of food shortages, transportation troubles and narrowed opportunity — that she has been posting on her Web site, Generation Y (desdecuba.com/generationy), since 2007.
"This country is so saturated with contaminated, corrupted political discourse, with empty pamphleteering, that I wanted to explore other areas," Ms. Sánchez, 35, said last month in a telephone interview from Havana, interrupted several times when the connection broke down. "I write about my interior life, the intimate sphere. It's the sentiments of one person but sums up the reality of many people and shows just how sick this society is."
Globally, Ms. Sánchez's blog, whose name refers to the Russian-sounding names beginning with "Y" that many Cubans her age were given at the height of their nation's dependency on the Soviet Union, is available in a score of languages and gets up to 14 million visits a month. Within Cuba, though, the dictatorship of Fidel and Raúl Castro has from the start sought to silence her and prevent other Cubans from reading what she calls her "little vignettes of reality."
Ms. Sánchez will not, for example, take a book tour to promote "Havana Real" because she is prohibited from leaving Cuba. "We Cubans are like small children," she has written, "who need Father's permission to leave the house." But she has sought to evade that restriction through videotaped virtual book readings, smuggled out of Cuba on flash drives, in which she explains her situation and reads sketches from her book. She has used similar subterfuges just to post her blog.
That stubborn cat-and-mouse battle, along with the forceful nature of her writing, have made Ms. Sánchez a potent symbol of resistance to five decades of totalitarian Communist rule. Former president Jimmy Carter met with her during a visit to Havana this year, President Obama did an online interview for her blog in late 2009, and in 2008 Time magazine, praising her "charming but pugnacious slice-of-life portraits of life in Cuba," put her on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
"The logic of events has made her a kind of leader, perceived by people as giving voice to all the discontent of an entire generation," said José Manuel Prieto, the exiled Cuban novelist and former visiting scholar at the New York Public Library. "She is not a news agency, so she circulates the population's feelings rather than journalistic scoops. But it bothers those in power that she has challenged their monopoly on information and offers a different reading of the country's reality."
The Castro dictatorship has responded to her challenge by doubling down. In the state-controlled media, Ms. Sánchez is often accused of conducting a "cyberwar" against the government, and Fidel Castro has singled her work out for criticism, calling her the leader of a group of "special envoys of neo-colonialism, sent to undermine" his rule.
By training Ms. Sánchez is a philologist and once worked at a publishing house specializing in children's books. But the start of her political problems can be traced to her thesis at the University of Havana, "Words Under Pressure: A Study of the Literature of Dictatorship in Latin America," which was seen as containing veiled criticisms of Fidel Castro's rule and praised writers she admires but who have had work banned, like the Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.
Her political profile sometimes obscures Ms. Sánchez's prose style and connection to Latin American and other literary traditions, say those familiar with her work. "She's a very gifted writer, and she's in a zone, like Federer playing at his best, able to choose what kind of shot she wants to make," said Oscar Hijuelos, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. "She has a novelistic sensibility, but I am particularly touched by the down-to-earthiness of her portraiture, her reporting from the front lines of daily life in Cuba. She has some very interesting chops that any writer would admire."
Ms. Sánchez seems particularly drawn to the essaylike genre known as the crónica, or chronicle, which she has helped bring into the 21st century by putting it online in compressed form. "With her focus on the quotidian, she is very much a part of that tradition," said Enrique Del Risco, who left Cuba in 1995 and now teaches contemporary Latin American literature at New York University "It's precisely that grounding in the domestic and personal plane that allows her to show how exhausting and crushing daily life can be."
Recently Ms. Sánchez completed a second book, a manual whose title translates as "Wordpress: A Blog for Speaking to the World." A new fiber-optic cable connecting Cuba with South America has just been laid, and when it begins fully operating later this summer, it is likely to increase opportunities not just for her, but for other dissident bloggers and writers, many of whom have attended the seminars she conducted that led to the writing of the second book.
"It's interesting that we're talking not about a bearded 80-year-old man, but a sharp, fearless, skinny 35-year-old mother," said Ted Henken, an expert on Cuba and the Internet who teaches at the City University of New York and visited Ms. Sánchez in April. "That's new, and in some ways, by spreading the virus of blogging and tweeting to others, she has displaced Che and Fidel among young, progressive people."A version of this article appeared in print on July 6, 2011, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: In Cuba, The Voice Of a Blog Generation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/books/yoani-sanchez-cubas-voice-of-a-blogging-generation.html?_r=2&ref=arts
Human rights group says abuses in Cuba are growing
Posted on Wednesday, 07.06.11
Human rights group says abuses in Cuba are growing
Cuban police detained twice more dissidents so far this year — and often with more violence — than in the same period in 2010, according to a report by a Havana human rights group.
Activists in Cuba disagreed on the exact number of detentions and whether they rose because of an increase in dissident activities or a spike in government repression.
But they uniformly reported that the level of physical violence against dissidents increased significantly in the first six months of the year, and that the number of detentions more than doubled.
"The most disquieting … and notable thing in this report is the really unprecedented increase in violence," said Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
His committee's report for June, issued Tuesday, noted that the "physical violence employed by the political police, its agents or para-police elements against peaceful opponents during the month has been particularly disquieting."
Sánchez's report also documented a 110 percent increase in the number of "persons detained temporarily for political reasons" — from 821 in the first six months of 2010 to 1,727 in the same period this year.
The list included male and female dissidents reportedly beaten during or after their detentions, and Wilfredo Soto Garcia, who died after an alleged police beating. The government has denied the allegation.
Sparking the crackdown is "the visible increase in social discontent" in recent years, Sánchez added by telephone. "And this has been reflected in an increased activism by dissidents throughout the country."
He also noted that a significant portion of the detentions and violence took place in eastern Cuba — historically wary of any Havana government — and the central province of Villa Clara, which appears to a focus of opposition to the island's communist system.
What Sánchez described as a "low intensity repression" has come as the Raúl Castro government freed more than 125 political prisoners over the past year following unprecedented talks with Cuba's Catholic Church.
Another Havana activist, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, said he agreed with Sánchez on the increased violence and arrests, but not on the numbers. His Cuban Council of Human Rights Reporters documented more than 3,000 "temporary detentions" so far this year.
Such detentions, from a few hours to a few days, are designed to intimidate dissidents or block planned opposition gatherings. Gonzalez Leiva called it "state terrorism, to maintain control."
John Suarez, international secretary for the Miami-based Cuban Democratic Directorate, said Castro had made an apparently approving reference to the violence during a speech in April.
"We will never deny the people's right to defend the Revolution," Castro told the closing session of a Communist Party congress, the party's most important gathering in 14 years.
Suarez also noted eight dissidents were sentenced to up to five years in prison this year, compared to two in all of 2010. Others put the number of dissidents tried or in jail while awaiting trial at closer to 20.
Gonzalez Leiva said his council also has documented increased numbers of "repudiation acts," or harassments of dissidents by government-organized mobs. Many have taken place in small towns and villages that had never before seen such attacks on government opponents, he added.
"In general terms, one could speak of a sharp deterioration" in Cuba's human rights record, he added, "that has been seen rarely in previous years."
In Sanchez's report, the month with the most temporary detentions was February with 390 — most of them linked to government efforts to avert gatherings marking the one-year anniversary of the death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo during a hunger strike.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/06/2300873/human-rights-group-says-abuses.html
Verdades que al cubano no le gusta oír
Publicado el miércoles, 07.06.11
Verdades que al cubano no le gusta oírNICOLAS PEREZ
En ocasiones se impone decir duras verdades.
El 1ro. de enero de 1959 hubo en la isla radicales cambios. La llegada de los guerrilleros de las sierras fue como si un puñado de ángeles hubiera desembarcado en la isla, asumiendo el amor de quien murió en la Cruz por todos nosotros. Era una puesta en escena que se venía gestando desde que Cristóbal Colón pisó tierra cubana. Cada pueblo se abraza a un destino, el de la India es la espiritualidad; el de Francia el arte de amar; el de Viena la cultura; el de los Estados Unidos crear riqueza, mientras que el de los cubanos, siempre fue la heroicidad y el martirologio. El criollo nunca quiso ser de grande bombero ni policía sino héroe. Por eso Cuba estuvo 467 años esperando al castrismo. Y no era un problema genético sino de auto inyección de fábulas patrióticas. Fuimos formados en el mito de la violencia y las muertes trascendentales, la primera la del indio Hatuey, quemado vivo porque se negó a ir al cielo para no encontrar allí españoles. ¿Quiénes eran José Antonio Saco y Félix Varela… gente aburrida. La imaginación popular se iba tras Ignacio Agramonte y sus 35 jinetes rescatando a Sanguily, y las cargas al machete de Gómez y Maceo, y aquella orden electrizante de los jefes insurrectos de: "Corneta, toque a degüello", ¿tanta poesía podía ser superada por un grupo de autonomistas que no olían a sudor ni a pólvora y que deseaban conquistar la independencia de Cuba en las Cortes Españolas?
Y hubo hombres que pudieron cambiar la idiosincrasia del cubano: José Martí, José Antonio Echeverría, Frank País, Virgilio Campaneria y otros. Pero por el karma que cargamos los cubanos todos fueron héroes en tiempos de rayos y centellas. Y se catapultan sus martirologios, sin profundizar en que fueron hombres de paz obligados a hacer la guerra, inteligentes y profundos, todos enemigos de los extremos.
La República fue una continuación de la guerra de independencia, ¿qué cubano pensó cinco minutos en lo que expuso Fernando Ortiz, o en lo que dijo Jorge Mañach, ¡No por Dios, ellos eran puro estiércol, los mascarones de proa de aquellos tiempos eran Julio Mella y Antonio Guiteras Holmes, asesinado en El Morrillo. Ellos eran el teatro griego, la lírica, el movimiento hermoso de un tiempo transcurrido. A la muerte de Guiteras, el cerebro más lúcido de la Generación del 30, Raúl Roa, dijo: "Así se perdió la figura más empinada, el ánimo mejor templado, la voluntad más indomeñable, el brazo más enérgico y el espíritu más puro del movimiento nacional revolucionario". Mella era un comunista romántico y Guiteras un idealista con propensión al gansterismo poético. Ambos hombres, pésimos paradigmas de una generación. Los dos bravos, pero punto. Y es que alguien dijo una vez que el cubano no pensaba con el cerebro sino con los testículos, una simple frase que el tiempo se ocuparía de convertir en todo un tratado de filosofía política.
Y es que en la isla se cultivaba la proeza creando las condiciones para la entronización del castrismo. Y éramos derechistas o izquierdistas. El político moderado era un pusilánime, el prudente un cobarde, el honrado un tonto y el guapo del barrio el arquetipo de la cubanidad. Por eso jamás aceptamos a un Cosme de la Torriente ni a un Carlos Márquez Sterling y abrimos los brazos a Fidel Castro y al Che Guevara.
En la antigüedad cuando los bárbaros sitiaban las ciudades lo primero que intentaban era derrumbar sus muros y el castrismo tomó el poder en un país sin muros. Y eso pudo producirse por la pasión del cubano por la oratoria inflamada y los adjetivos hiperbólicos. Y nos rendimos a Eduardo Chibás, a José Pardo Llada y a Miguel Angel Quevedo, todos incluso quizás bien intencionados, pero que se ocuparon de destruir nuestra institucionalidad.
Por último el radicalismo criollo con su incapacidad de encontrar un centro se abrazó a Washington con desesperación. Y cuando el primer gesto de la CIA hacia una incipiente oposición fue vender la Conspiración Trujillista al enemigo cerramos los ojos porque eran "contra revolucionarios". Lo mismo que hoy dicen muchos que somos todos nosotros. Llegó Playa Girón, El Escambray y la Clandestinidad, pero siempre persistimos en ser obedientes al gobierno norteamericano. Y perdimos nuestra soberanía, y eso nos creó un fino tejado de vidrio sobre el que Castro lleva medio siglo lanzándonos pedradas.
Ahora Hugo Chávez tiene cáncer y la libertad de Cuba puede estar cerca, hay que tomar decisiones, y advierto, esta vez, no nos podemos equivocar.
http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2011/07/05/975031/nicolas-perez-verdades-que-al.html
Cuba vive nueva ola de represión contra periodistas independientes
Represión, CPJ
Cuba vive nueva ola de represión contra periodistas independientes
El informe del Comité para la Protección de los Periodistas (CPJ) señala que "la represión es constante y significativa"
EFE, Nueva York | 06/07/2011
El Comité para la Protección de los Periodistas (CPJ, por sus siglas en inglés) denunció hoy una nueva "ola de represión" en Cuba contra periodistas independientes, meses después de que las autoridades de la Isla liberaran al último de los 29 informadores encarcelados durante la Primavera Negra de 2003.
"La liberación en marzo del último de los 29 periodistas encarcelados en 2003 marcó para muchos el fin de un oscuro período, pero las autoridades cubanas aún persiguen a los periodistas independientes con arrestos arbitrarios, palizas e intimidación", señala el CPJ en su último informe sobre la isla caribeña.
El informe señala que, pese a los movimientos del régimen de los Castro hacia la galería, sigue "persiguiendo de forma constante a periodistas independientes con numerosos métodos como detenciones de corto plazo, campañas de desprestigio o sanciones sociales".
"Aunque la nueva estrategia represiva aún no ha atraído la atención internacional por tener un perfil más bajo que la redada masiva de la 'primavera negra', la represión es constante y significativa", subraya la organización.
El CPJ asegura que "más de una decena de periodistas sufrieron arrestos domiciliarios" entre marzo y abril, cuando se produjeron "hechos políticos sensibles".
Así, subraya que en esos dos meses se produjo "el encarcelamiento de decenas de periodistas y disidentes", aunque destaca que ningún periodista ha sido sentenciado a prolongadas penas de cárcel, suerte que sí han corrido al menos seis disidentes.
Esos miembros de la oposición fueron condenados en mayo a penas de entre dos y cinco años de cárcel, una medida "alarmante" para la organización de defensa de la libertad de expresión y de prensa.
El informe habla de una "metamorfosis" de la represión política en Cuba, y dice que si bien antes se basaba en largas condenas de prisión, ahora son "numerosas detenciones" que duran "horas, días o semanas", y un acoso más sistemático a los periodistas.
De esta forma, el CPJ insta a las autoridades cubanas a poner fin a las campañas de desprestigio contra periodistas independientes y a derogar las leyes "injustas" en las que se amparan para encarcelarlos.
La organización, que exige también permitir a los periodistas trabajar "en libertad y sin temor a represalias", recomienda al régimen ampliar el acceso a internet a la población en general y permitir volver a la isla a los informadores exiliados.
Por otro lado, el CPJ invita a la Unión Europea (UE) a exhortar al régimen de La Habana a reclamar un diálogo sobre la base de progresos "sustanciales y específicos" en la evaluación de la llamada "posición común".
"Esos avances deberían incluir la implementación de pactos internacionales sobre derechos humanos suscritos por Cuba y la garantía a todos los cubanos de la libertad de expresión y el acceso a la información a través de todos los medios", añadió.
También insta a los Veintisiete a crear un ambiente de bienvenida en la UE a los disidentes excarcelados y forzados al exilio, y a facilitar su acceso a programas de asistencia y entrenamiento.
En ese sentido, el CPJ hace una mención especial a las dificultades que atraviesan los periodistas que se exiliaron en España, país al que tilda de "hogar amargo para los cubanos".
La organización recoge testimonios de algunos periodistas que afirman estar viviendo "en un limbo legal" porque sus permisos de trabajo deben renovarse cada cuatro meses, lo que les dificulta encontrar empleo, aunque la mayoría reconoce que sus necesidades básicas han sido "cubiertas".
El CPJ también insta a Estados Unidos a garantizar que su política de apoyo a los disidentes sea "abierta y transparente", y recomienda al relator especial para la Libertad de Expresión de la ONU que evalúe el estado de las libertades de prensa y de expresión en Cuba.
Respecto a cualquier futura participación de Cuba en la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA), dice que hay que garantizar que la Isla se ajuste a los principios del organismo, incluyendo el derecho a la libertad de expresión.
Por último, ofrece recomendaciones a la comunidad tecnológica internacional, para que sigan apoyando a blogueros cubanos mediante la publicidad de sus trabajos y la creación de enlaces que conduzcan a éstos.
http://www.cubaencuentro.com/cuba/noticias/cuba-vive-nueva-ola-de-represion-contra-periodistas-independientes-265053
‘Cambios’ y ‘reformas’, las palabras malditas, según la televisión cubana
Política
'Cambios' y 'reformas', las palabras malditas, según la televisión cubanaAgenciasLa Habana 06-07-2011 – 9:56 pm.
El régimen recuerda que 'en ningún momento se está privatizando la propiedad estatal ni la propiedad social'.
La televisión oficial criticó hoy que la prensa extranjera "manipula" el lenguaje político del país al utilizar términos capitalistas para referirse a la "actualización del modelo económico" que impulsa Raúl Castro, informó EFE.
Según un reportaje emitido en el informativo del mediodía de la televisión estatal, determinados medios de comunicación extranjeros catalogan deliberadamente las "actualizaciones" del modelo cubano como "cambios y reformas".
"(Es) un fenómeno que pudiera parecer un simple juego de palabras, pero su esencia está en la manipulación del lenguaje político cubano por parte de algunos medios de la prensa extranjera, quienes intentan empequeñecer las transformaciones socio económicas que hoy ocurren en nuestro país", señaló el reporte.
En el reportaje televisivo varios especialistas en ciencias políticas y económicas de la Isla opinaron sobre las razones de esas "posturas mediáticas" y destacan que las transformaciones iniciadas en Cuba no afectan los principios ni la esencia de la revolución.
Uno de los entrevistados y profesor del Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales, el doctor Luis Salazar, indicó que la prensa extranjera se orienta en la búsqueda de "reformas pro liberales" y "pro capitalistas", y por ello lo que "se está haciendo en Cuba bajo el concepto de la actualización les resulta (…) insuficiente".
Según el profesor de la Facultad de Economía de la Universidad de La Habana, Rafael Sorhegui, lo más "trascendental" no es el nombre del proceso, sino que "se sostiene" la esencia de la revolución porque no han cambiado sus principios de soberanía, equidad económica y justicia social.
El reporte también indica que la prensa extranjera hace énfasis en "los espacios a la propiedad privada" dentro del proceso de "actualización", pero resalta que "en ningún momento se está privatizando la propiedad estatal ni la propiedad social" de Cuba.
Además, se menciona que otros países socialistas han denominado a sus "transformaciones socio económicas con términos diferentes", como es el caso de China, que calificó a sus reformas como "modernización", y el de Vietnam, que utilizó el calificativo de "renovación".
El plan de ajustes para "actualizar", según la retórica oficial, el socialismo cubano fue aprobado en abril pasado por el VI Congreso del Partido Comunista (gobernante y único legal), con el objetivo de superar la grave crisis que arrastra desde hace décadas.
http://www.ddcuba.com/cuba/5680-cambios-y-reformas-las-palabras-malditas-segun-la-television-cubana
CPJ: El régimen implementa nuevos métodos de represión contra periodistas independientes
CPJ: El régimen implementa nuevos métodos de represión contra periodistas independientesAgenciasNueva York 06-07-2011 – 4:05 pm.
Utiliza desde 'detenciones de corto plazo, campañas de desprestigio o sanciones sociales', hasta 'palizas e intimidación', dice la organización.
El Comité para la Protección de los Periodistas (CPJ, por sus siglas en inglés) denunció este miércoles una nueva "ola de represión" contra periodistas independientes en Cuba, informa EFE.
"La liberación en marzo del último de los 29 periodistas encarcelados en 2003 marcó para muchos el fin de un oscuro período, pero las autoridades cubanas aún persiguen a los periodistas independientes con arrestos arbitrarios, palizas e intimidación", dice el CPJ en su último informe sobre la Isla.
El reporte señala que, pese a los movimientos de cara a la galería, el régimen de los Castro sigue "persiguiendo de forma constante a periodistas independientes con numerosos métodos como detenciones de corto plazo, campañas de desprestigio o sanciones sociales".
"Aunque la nueva estrategia represiva aún no ha atraído la atención internacional por tener un perfil más bajo que la redada masiva de la 'Primavera Negra', la represión es constante y significativa", subraya la organización.
Añade que "más de una decena de periodistas sufrieron arrestos domiciliarios" entre marzo y abril, cuando se produjeron "hechos políticos sensibles".
En esos dos meses se registró "el encarcelamiento de decenas de periodistas y disidentes", aunque ningún periodista ha sido sentenciado a prolongadas penas de cárcel, suerte que sí han corrido al menos seis opositores.
Esos miembros de la disidencia fueron condenados en mayo a penas de entre dos y cinco años de cárcel, una medida "alarmante", dice la organización de defensa de la libertad de expresión y de prensa.
El informe advierte sobre una "metamorfosis" en la manera de aplicar la represión política en Cuba, y dice que si bien antes se basaba en largas condenas de prisión, ahora se caracteriza por "numerosas detenciones" que duran "horas, días o semanas", y un acoso más sistemático a los periodistas.
El CPJ insta a las autoridades cubanas a poner fin a las campañas de desprestigio contra periodistas independientes y a derogar las leyes "injustas" en las que se amparan para encarcelarlos.
La organización, que exige también permitir a los periodistas trabajar "en libertad y sin temor a represalias", recomienda al régimen ampliar el acceso a internet a la población en general y permitir volver a la Isla a los informadores exiliados.
Por otro lado, invita a la Unión Europea (UE) a exhortar al régimen de La Habana a reclamar un diálogo sobre la base de progresos "sustanciales y específicos" en la evaluación de Posición Común.
"Esos avances deberían incluir la implementación de pactos internacionales sobre derechos humanos suscritos por Cuba y la garantía a todos los cubanos de la libertad de expresión y el acceso a la información a través de todos los medios", añade.
También insta a los Veintisiete a crear un ambiente de bienvenida en la UE a los disidentes excarcelados y forzados al exilio, y a facilitar su acceso a programas de asistencia y entrenamiento.
En ese sentido, el CPJ hace mención especial a las dificultades que atraviesan los periodistas desterrados a España, país al que califica de "hogar amargo para los cubanos".
La organización recoge testimonios de algunos periodistas que afirman estar viviendo "en un limbo legal" en el país europeo porque sus permisos de trabajo deben renovarse cada cuatro meses, lo que les dificulta encontrar empleo. No obstante, la mayoría reconoce que sus necesidades básicas han sido "cubiertas".
El CPJ también insta a Estados Unidos a garantizar que su política de apoyo a los disidentes sea "abierta y transparente", y recomienda al relator especial para la Libertad de Expresión de la ONU que evalúe el estado de las libertades de prensa y de expresión en Cuba.
Respecto a cualquier futura participación de Cuba en la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA), dice que hay que garantizar que La Habana se ajuste a los principios del organismo, incluyendo el derecho a la libertad de expresión.
Por último, ofrece recomendaciones a la comunidad tecnológica internacional, para que siga apoyando a blogueros cubanos mediante la publicidad de sus trabajos y la creación de enlaces que conduzcan a éstos.
http://www.ddcuba.com/derechos-humanos/5676-cpj-el-regimen-implementa-nuevos-metodos-de-represion-contra-periodistas-indep
La adaptación al cambio climático en Cuba costará millones de dólares
Medio Ambiente
La adaptación al cambio climático en Cuba costará millones de dólares
Este cálculo se basa en un modelo desarrollado por expertos de la Universidad de Southerton sobre los efectos del aumento en el nivel del mar en el mundo
Agencias, La Habana | 06/07/2011
La adaptación de Cuba al cambio climático costará varios millones de dólares por año, de acuerdo con un cálculo dado a conocer en la Convención Internacional de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo, que se realiza en La Habana, reportó Notimex.
Este cálculo está apoyado en un modelo desarrollado por expertos de la Universidad británica de Southerton, que incluye datos de 2005 y de proyecciones a 2095 sobre los efectos del aumento en el nivel del mar en el mundo.
Según el científico Asher Minns, del británico Centro Tyndall para el Cambio Climático, este modelo ofrece datos de la cantidad de tierra que se perderá, los efectos sobre pantanos por kilómetros cuadrados y el número de personas que estará en riesgo por las inundaciones.
En su presentación del modelo durante la Convención, Minns indicó que el estudio cubre el mar Caribe y evalúa el impacto del aumento de la temperatura global y los costos de las medidas para adaptarse a sus consecuentes fenómenos, aunque aclaró que hay 18 modelos para predecir los efectos.
El experto consideró que el mayor desafío para la adaptación al cambio climático es la dimensión humana y la disparidad tecnológica, punto en el que hay una gran paradoja, pues la gente de países pobres sabe más sobre adaptación y las naciones ricas tienen mejor tecnología.
"No hay duda de que el mundo industrializado es responsable del cambio climático y los países pobres son los que sufren las peores consecuencias", dijo Minns, citado por la agencia oficial Prensa Latina.
http://www.cubaencuentro.com/cuba/noticias/la-adaptacion-al-cambio-climatico-en-cuba-costara-millones-de-dolares-265069
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