Cuba

Cuba’s legitimate desire to participate in the process of regional integration and the desire for openness seen in certain reforms currently under way need to be accompanied by long-awaited progress in respect for fundamental freedoms.

Although a submarine internet cable touched ground in Santiago de Cuba in February 2011, it has yet to provide service to Cuban clients despite reports that it is finally functioning.

The International Press Institute (IPI) is deeply concerned for the well-being of jailed Cuban journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez, who has been on a hunger strike since Nov. 10 to protest prison conditions.

Journalist Roberto de Jesús Guerra said “the political police” have been persecuting him over his journalistic work. They warned him that they would not allow him to access the Internet ever again in order to upload reports or videos. In addition, they threatened him that every time he sought to do so he would be arrested by the security forces.

Arrested in 2011 after writing articles about mismanagement of a Santiago aqueduct project and the installation of fibre-optic cable between Venezuela and Cuba, José Antonio Torres was sentenced in July to 14 years in prison and withdrawal of his university degree in journalism.

Cuban authorities charged journalist Yaremis Flores with anti-state crimes in connection with news articles critical of the government, an arrest that sparked two waves of protests and detentions outside a Havana police station.

The International Press Institute (IPI) today welcomed the release of Cuban blogger and IPI World Press Freedom Yoani Sánchez, who had been detained by Cuban authorities on Thursday evening while attempting to cover the trial of a Spanish activist accused of causing the death of a well-known dissident in a car crash.

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest of three independent Cuban bloggers and calls for their immediate release. Yoani Sánchez, one of Cuba’s most prominent bloggers, was detained yesterday along with her husband, journalist Reinaldo Escobar, and blogger Agustín Díaz in the city of Bayamo, according to news reports.

A charge of criminal contempt brought against Cuban independent journalist Calixto Martínez Arias for warning about cases of cholera and dengue in his country was today protested by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). If found guilty he could face three years in prison.

Roberto de Jesús Guerra, editor of the news website Hablemos Press, was detained with one of the site’s photographers, Gerardo Youmel Ávila Perdomo, while the two were on their way to an Internet training course; Jesús Guerra was later released but was “savagely beaten beyond recognition”.

The independent news agency Centro de Información Hablemos Press has complained of an increase in repression of its journalists.

Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias recently reported, via Hablemos Press, that Havana was experiencing problems with its water supply.

Almost two years after the first crop of journalists arrived in Spain, the four who remain in the country are living under extremely difficult conditions, struggling even to feed themselves.

Dissidents said that when they sought to exercise their basic rights to speak up about human rights concerns and hold rallies over the past few weeks, the authorities responded with beatings, detentions, harassment, and other repressive measures.

It was, according to the blogger, the 19th time Cuban officials have turned down her request to leave the island. As in the past, officials gave no reason for the rejection.

Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias is awaiting deportation from the capital for the ninth time in less than two years, to his hometown of Camagüey.