The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has recently written the following letter to Javier Garza Calderon, the Chief Executive of Grupo Domos, a privately owned Mexican telecommunications company based in Monterrey, Mexico. In 1994 it purchased 49 per cent of ETECSA, the Cuban state telephone company, with which it had entered into a joint venture. […]
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has recently written
the following letter to Javier Garza Calderon, the Chief
Executive of Grupo Domos, a privately owned Mexican
telecommunications company based in Monterrey, Mexico. In 1994 it
purchased 49 per cent of ETECSA, the Cuban state telephone
company, with which it had entered into a joint venture. The CPJ
considers Grupo Domos’s partial ownership of ETECSA as its tacit
complicity in the Cuban government’s campaign of harassment and
intimidation of independent Cuban journalists.
“Dear Mr. Garza:
“The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, an independent,
nonpartisan press freedom organisation, is writing to protest
what we view as complicity on the part of Grupo Domos in the
Cuban government’s unconscionable campaign of harassment and
intimidation of independent Cuban journalists. We are also making
our views known to the Honourable Jose Angel Gurria, the Mexican
Secretary of Foreign Relations, and the Honourable Warren
Christopher, United States Secretary of State.
“In 1994, Grupo Domos entered into a joint venture with the Cuban
government, buying 49 percent of the state telephone company,
ETECSA, for US$ 750 million. We recognize that Grupo Domos is not
responsible for the telecommunications or public information
policies of the Cuban government. However, to participate in and
profit from such totalitarian constraints on press freedom is
nonetheless deserving of condemnation.
“Independent journalists in Cuba are denied access to direct long
distance telephone service and must use an operator to call
abroad. Telephone calls are often interrupted and it is widely
assumed that government security agencies monitor conversations.
Moreover, independent Cuban journalists are not allowed to use
the phone services provided by Grupo Domos for facsimile machines
or computer modems without government approval. This is a direct
violation of the right to the freedom of expression guaranteed
under Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
“The U.S.-based Cuban exile dissident organisation, Grupo de
Apoyo a Concilio Cubano, Inc., has documented a pattern of
interference with telephone communications with Cuba and reported
last week that more than half of the group’s telephone calls to
Cuba, some of which were also to independent journalists, have
been deliberately interrupted.
“As a private, non-profit group of journalists devoted
exclusively to press freedom issues, CPJ has no position on
provisions in the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity
(Libertad) Act, sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and
Representative Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and signed into law by
President Bill Clinton, which imposes sanctions on foreign
companies operating on property in Cuba that was expropriated
from American firms. However, it is a matter of public record
that CPJ has objected to other provisions of the Libertad Act
that in our view interfere with the exchange of journalists and
news reports between Cuba and the U.S.
“Our quarrel with Grupo Domos’s role in Cuba is that the company
is effectively collaborating with the Cuban government in
political repression aimed at silencing journalists. To that end
we believe that Grupo Domos should be held accountable for this
reprehensible behaviour.
“As a nonpartisan organisation that protects the rights of
journalists worldwide, CPJ supports the efforts of Cuban
journalists to work independently.
“We welcome your comments and any information you could provide
us regarding the role of Grupo Domos in providing access to
international and domestic telephone services to Cuba’s
independent journalists who, like reporters everywhere, require
the unobstructed use of telecommunications services in order to
carry out their professional obligations, as is their right.”
Recommended Action
-Send similar appeals to Javier Garza Calderon expressing concern
over Grupo Domos’s connection to the continued harassment and
intimidation of independent journalists by the Cuban government
Appeals To
Javier Garza Calderon
Chief Executive
Grupo Domos
Garza Garcia, Estado Nuevo Leon
Mexico
Fax: +528 356 4404
Tel: +528 356 5942
Please copy appeals to the originator if possible.
