CNN Newsroom: Global View

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ CNN Newsroom: Global View / CNN Newsroom: Global View.iso / txt / hrw / hrwams92.006 < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1994-05-02 | 30KB | 565 lines

<text> <title> Cuba </title> <article> <hdr> Human Rights Watch World Report 1992 Americas Watch: Cuba </hdr> <body> Human Rights Developments The Cuban government intensified its campaign of repression against human rights advocates and political dissidents in 1991, as rights-monitoring and pro-democracy associations strove to maintain a small political space for their peaceful activities. Cuban authorities continued to detain dissidents and imprison human rights activists; to organize mobs for staged demonstrations against government critics in so-called acts of repudiation; and to dismiss writers, artists and union leaders from their jobs and unions for voicing dissent. "Rapid response brigades"--government-organized bands of civilian recruits were a new development in 1991, used to intimidate "individuals with political and ideological problems." ("Cuba Creates 'Rapid Action Groups' to Stop Public Dissent," Reuters, July 11, 1991.) Plainclothes state-security police, better known for their subtler forms of repression, brutally assaulted political dissidents in a rash of targeted attacks. The government's actions against its most outspoken critics remind all Cubans, long accustomed to a government that rewards conformity, of the high cost of challenging the status quo. Ruled for thirty-three years by Fidel Castro, Cuba lacks the laws and institutions that would protect basic civil and political rights. There is no free press. Only state-owned and -controlled media may operate legally. Free speech is curbed by laws that prohibit "enemy propaganda," "contempt" and "clandestine printing." Peaceful dissenters are sometimes imprisoned on charges as serious as "incitement" and "rebellion." For insulting President Castro, Cubans are imprisoned for up to three years. There are no legally recognized civic or political organizations--such as labor unions or political parties--that are independent of the government or Communist Party. Free association and assembly are punished under laws that prohibit "illegal association" and "public disorder." There are no free and fair legislative or presidential elections. The Cuban legal system is designed to maintain the status quo. Cuban courts are subordinate to the executive, and Cuban judges are required to demonstrate their "active revolutionary integration." Once arrested, defendants, especially in political cases, are almost always convicted. Tight political control in Cuba is maintained through extensive monitoring of Cubans' daily lives. The monitoring is conducted by state-security police and government-sponsored surveillance organizations such as the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, which operate in the neighborhood and workplace. The failure to report criminal activity, including political or free-expression "crimes," is punishable under Cuban law. In schools, teachers keep records on each student, detailing information such as the "ideological integration" of the parents and whether the family actively practices a religion. In late 1991 the Communist Party-led mass organization for school children, the Pioneers, considered creating "rapid response brigades" in the schools to deal with schoolchildren "affected" by foreign ideas. ("Child Vigilante Groups Suggested for Cuban Schools," Reuters, November 2, 1991.) One exception to the otherwise bleak human rights picture in 1991 was the easing of travel restrictions. For years, only men over the age of sixty-five and women over age sixty were permitted to travel abroad and return to Cuba. In 1991, this restriction was gradually reduced, and in August, the age limit was lowered to twenty for men and women. This trend has been interpreted by some as an attempt by the Cuban government to create an escape valve--through emigration--to reduce internal tension caused by deepening economic austerity. Cubans enjoy the unique privilege under U.S. law of being allowed to overstay their tourist visas when visiting relatives in the United States while remaining eligible for an immigrant visa. Regardless of the government's motive, the loosening of travel restrictions represents a significant human rights improvement. (However, shortly after the Cuban government announced the reduction in the age limit for travel, the United States announced that its Interests Section in Havana would suspend acceptance of new tourist-visa applications so that it could process a backlog of pending applications. The sudden announcement was seen by some as a way of undermining the Cuban government's attempt at securing an "escape valve.") At the same time, Cubans who do not qualify for travel because they fail to meet either Cuban or U.S. conditions have been departing in record numbers on makeshift rafts and small boats. Leaving the country without the Cuban government's approval is illegal under Cuban law and punishable with one to three years in prison. The hundreds who have been convicted of "illegal exit" are thought to constitute the largest category of political prisoners in Cuba today. In the course of 1991, the Cuban government released at least five human rights monitors and political activists from custody before completion of their prison sentence. In addition, the last two remaining "historical plantados," or long-term prisoners who refused to cooperate with the prison "reeducation" program, were released--one, after serving twenty-two years of a forty-year sentence, and the other, a mere twenty-four hours before his thirty-year prison term expired. Nineteen ninety-one saw an increase in limited forms of independent political activity in Cuba. The emergence of a variety of independent--and therefore illegal--democracy advocacy groups was spurred by frustration with the government's political intransigence and concern about the effects of heightened economic hardship caused by the loss of Cuba's traditional international trading partners. Some of these independent groups were singled out for especially harsh extra-judicial retaliation. The repression began to intensify in the months preceding the Pan American Games in August, when Cuba hosted thousands of foreigners and foreign journalists, and continued through the remainder of the year. -- In June, Cuban authorities orchestrated a series of reprisals against the Harmony Movement (MAR), a social democratic organization which advocates peaceful change and democracy. MAR has deliberately engaged in relatively tame activities--such as attending masses at churches in sizable numbers--and had prepared the first issue of a pro-democracy publication, La Opinión, which had not yet been distributed when it was confiscated by state-security police. After gathering at churches, five MAR members in two separate incidents in Havana were assaulted on the street and badly beaten by small bands of what are widely believed to be plainclothes state-security agents. In a third incident, Yndamiro Restano, the leader of MAR was attacked on his way to meet with a well-known human rights advocate. -- After searching their homes on June 30, state-security police arrested eleven MAR members and threatened them with charges of "illegal association," "enemy propaganda," "clandestine printing" and "inciting rebellion." The eleven were released a day later after receiving "official warnings." Six others were fired from their jobs and expelled from their official trade unions. -- Also in June, a group of dissident writers and other cultural figures issued a statement calling for, among other things, a national debate about the future of the country, direct legislative elections, and an amnesty for all prisoners of conscience. (Ironically, one of the reforms called for by the writers--direct legislative elections--was later adopted during the Fourth Communist Party Congress held in Santiago de Cuba in October.) The authorities retaliat