(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 23 January 2004 IAPA press release: Cuba: Journalist goes on hunger strike, IAPA protests government’s continuing violation of human rights MIAMI, Florida (January 23, 2004) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today held the Cuban government responsible for the health of independent journalist Léster Téllez Castro, who has […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 23 January 2004 IAPA press release:
Cuba: Journalist goes on hunger strike, IAPA protests government’s continuing violation of human rights
MIAMI, Florida (January 23, 2004) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today held the Cuban government responsible for the health of independent journalist Léster Téllez Castro, who has gone on hunger strike to protest his imprisonment for nearly two years without trial. Téllez Castro, head of the Avila Free News Agency, has been held in custody since March 4, 2002 at the State Security Operations Center in Ciego de Avila, central Cuba. The Cuba Press correspondent in Ciego de Avila, Jesús Alvarez Castillo, told the IAPA in a telephone call that Téllez Castro “has been on hunger strike since January 12.”
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina, declared that “with total impunity for its actions, Cuba continues to violate international human rights principles and is unconcerned about the consequences. We strongly condemn this attitude of indifference and lack of respect by the government.”
According to information received from Cuba, Téllez Castro, 28, told his mother, Ildelisa Castro Campo, that he would remain on hunger strike until he is released from jail or put on trial. He is being held on charges of disturbing public order, disobeying the law, resistance and “insulting” the Cuban president.
Some of the other 32 imprisoned independent journalists, as well as political dissidents, have also gone on hunger strike in recent months to draw the attention of the international community and the Cuban authorities to the deplorable hygiene conditions in the prisons, beatings by fellow inmates and poor health care for those in custody, some of whom are suffering from chronic illnesses.
Molina said that “not only are the authorities attempting to force journalists jailed for exercising their right to free speech to give in, but they are sullying all citizens’ rights by imposing such measures as the recent restrictions on the already limited access to the Internet.”
