Freedom of expression in Cuba

A BRIEFING PAPER for journalists from the Writers in Prison Committee of English PEN

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Get out of the fire of hypocrisyfrom the edge of barefoot verse

Look for an avenue to throw down these necessitiesand don’t delay on the threshold of pearls and rain.

Enter like a shooting star.Break the protocoland teach the remnants of your soulchained to the last collection of poems.

None will dare call you a marionette, wretch or foolYou will be – for ever more – safefrom gloomy reflectionsfrom voices from beyond the gravefrom the threads that support the mask

Escape from falsity and heavinessAt the end of the passage there is a door.

Escape this minute.Before nightfall.Before they trap you againand force you to howl like a goator to jump like a fool.

- Jorge Olivera Castillotranslated by Cat Lucas

Sal del fuego de la hipocresíadel filo de los versos descalzos

Busca una avenida donde precipitar las urgencias

y no te detengas en el umbral de perlas y lluvia.

Entra como un bólido.Rompe el protocolo

y enseña tus retazos de almaencadenados al último poemario

Nadie se arriesgará a llamarte títere, ruin o necio.

Estarás-para siempre- a salvode los reflejos sombríos

de las voces de ultratumbade los hilos que sostienen el antifaz

Huye de la falsedad y la torpeza.Al final del pasillo está la puerta.

Escapa ahora mismo.Antes del anochecer.

Antes que te atrapen otra vezpara obligarte a berrear como una cabra

o saltar como un bufón.

Salida De Emergencia (Emergency Exit)

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Executive Summary

THROUGHOUT 2009, the Writers in Prison Committee of English PEN campaigned for measures to ensure freedom of expression for the people of Cuba.

Cuba operates by far the most hostile approach to freedom of expression anywhere in Latin America. There are currently 26 writers imprisoned in Cuba for expressing their political beliefs. Only China, Iran and Burma imprison more writers for exercising their right to freedom of expression.

56 people including writers, librarians, book collectors, trades unionists, political activists and human rights campaigners have been in prison since the notorious ‘Black Spring’ wave of arrests which took place in March 2003.

Prison conditions for these detainees are appalling. Cuba is one of the few countries in the world that deny the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its prisons.

Cuba has rejected many of the measures suggested by the United Nations in February 2009 to improve human rights in the country.

Political conformity is imposed through the use of criminal prosecutions, long- and short-term detentions, harassment, police warnings, surveillance, house arrests, travel restrictions, exile and politically motivated dismissals from employment.

All print and broadcast media are state-controlled.

There is more space for free expression in the arts. Novelists present critical views of the island, but there is little funding for publishing and books are not widely obtainable.

Cubans are also able to express dissent online. Unfortunately, ordinary Cubans have limited access to the internet, meaning they are unable to use it as an effective tool to drive activism and culture.

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Contents

Salida De Emergencia 2

Introduction to the Campaign 5

Background 6

The United States Embargo of Cuba 7

Human Rights and Imprisoned Writers 8

Freedom of Expression 10

Frequently Asked Questions 12

From the WiPC Post Bag 14

International Views 15

Return to Sender: An essay by Raúl Rivero 16

Terence Blacker: We Can’t Ignore Cuba’s Dark Side 18

Phillip Pullman: The Imprisoned Writers in Cuba 19

Credits 22

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“It is very interesting to see that, although we have had 50 years of a Revolution in total power and aiming for justice, we nevertheless remain far from achieving our goals.”

- Mariela Castro Espin, 2009.Director of Cuba’s National Centre for Sexual

Education, and daughter of President Raul Castro.

The Cuban Revolution is more than fifty years old, yet its democratic promise is still to be fulfilled.

The Cuban government operates one of the most repressive regimes in the world, and is fourth only to China, Iran and Burma in the number of writers imprisoned in the country for peaceful expression of their opinions.

Cuba imprisons far more writers than the rest of Latin America combined. The most recent ‘case list’ of writers in prison, published by PEN’s international secretariat in December 2009, lists twenty-six writers imprisoned by the Cuban government. Meanwhile, there are only four other writers in prison throughout the rest of Latin America.

While tourists are free to experience Cuban culture, ordinary Cuban citizens have very little access to culture themselves. Home-grown literature has a very small audience on the island: print runs are small and books are expensive to buy. A stifling bureaucracy prevents many books from being published.

This media briefing has been produced by English PEN to help journalists within the UK and around the world to draw attention to Cuba’s poor record on freedom of expression. In particular, English PEN is asking travel writers

to present a balanced portrait of Cuba as a travel destination. This document also presents ways in which visitors to Cuba can promote freedom of expression, and how publishers and cultural critics in the UK can give greater exposure to Cuban literature and other art.

English PEN demands the following:

• The release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Cuba

• Fair and open trials with a robust legal defence

• A reform of Article 91 of the Cuban Penal Code, which provides for up to 20 years imprisonment for acts ‘against the independence and honour’ of the Cuban state

• The abolition of Law 88 of 1999 (under which dissidents can be sentenced to 20 years in prison) and the Security of Information Law, as well as any other measure which deters journalists, writers and librarians from the peaceful exercise of their activities

• The improvement of prison conditions and rights for prisoners of conscience

• Better healthcare for prisoners and medical parole for the seriously ill

• An extension of prisoners’ rights, with increased monthly allowances for letter-writing and easier access to family visits

• Freedom of travel for Cuban writers, as provided for by Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Greater access to literature and to information and communication technologies (ICT) for all Cubans.

Introduction to the Campaign

“The Writers in Prison Committee of English PEN condemns the unjust imprisonment and ill-treatment of Cuban writers and journalists, and affirms its solidarity with them. The continued detention and denial of medical care to dissident writers in prison is an intolerable breach of the most basic of internationally recognised human rights, and this situation cannot be allowed to continue. Although Cuba is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), its record on human rights remains abysmal. The Writers in Prison Committee calls therefore on President Raúl Castro to take immediate action to release these prisoners of conscience, and to amend Cuba’s punitive laws which deny free expression to its people.”

Carole Seymour-JonesChair, Writers in Prison Committee of English PEN, February 2010

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Cuba is an island in the Caribbean Sea with a population of around 11.3 million. It has been a one-party state

led by Fidel Castro since the fall of the US-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959.

Fulgencio Batista was a Latin American ‘strongman’ who, as Army Chief of Staff, seized power in Cuba in 1933, and then again shortly before the 1952 presidential election. His second term in office was characterised by inequality and corruption, notorious for delivering lucrative gambling licences to foreign businesses with links to the mafia. Fidel Castro’s revolution therefore enjoyed popular support when it overthrew Batista’s regime in 1959.

Castro assumed the role of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, under the Presidency of Manuel Urrutia Lleó. One month later, Castro was able to force the resignation of Prime Minister José Miró Cardona and assume that position himself. He formally became President of Cuba in 1976.

In July 2006, due to ill health, Fidel Castro transferred his responsibilities to his brother and vice-president, Raúl Castro Ruz. In February 2008, following an announcement by Fidel Castro that he would not stand again as

Background

President, Raúl Castro was officially inaugurated as his successor.

Despite some economic, agricultural and administrative reforms, there have been few real changes to the nature of the regime since Raúl Castro took power. Cuba rejected many of the measures to guarantee human rights recommended as part of the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Cuba in February 2009. Rejected recommendations included calls for the amendment or repeal of Law 88, and Article 91 of the Penal Code, laws which allow the regime to imprison dissidents for reasons of ‘social dangerousness’ and state security. The government has also refused to guarantee free movement to independent journalists and human rights defenders in the country.

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The United States Embargo of Cuba

A United States arms embargo has been in force against Cuba since 1958, when Cuba was in a Cold War alliance with

the Soviet Union. In 1962, President Kennedy announced an economic embargo, and the following year extended this to include travel by American citizens to the island. The embargo was reinforced in 1992 with the passage of the Cuban Democracy Act (‘The Torricelli Law’) and the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democracy Solidarity Act (‘The Helms-Burton Law’). These measures prevent companies that trade with Cuba from also trading with the USA. Since the USA is the dominant world economic power, these laws effectively co-opt other countries into following US policy.

Canada, Mexico and the European Union all view the Helms-Burton law as counter-productive. In 1996, the European Council enacted counter-legislation, forbidding EU citizens from obeying the American Act. The EU ‘common position’ communiqué of the same year emphasised that a more open economy would facilitate improvements in democracy and human rights. It pledged greater international trade between Cuba and member states.

Since 1996, the EU policy towards the embargo has not changed. On 28th October 2009, the Swedish Ambassador to the UN, Anders Linden, made the following statement on behalf of the EU:

“The European Union clearly believes, therefore, that the lifting of the US embargo would open the Cuban economy to the benefit of the Cuban people. We again express our rejection of all unilateral measures directed against Cuba that are contrary to commonly accepted rules of international trade.”On the same day, the General Assembly of

the UN voted 187 to 3 in favour of ending the blockade. In fact, the assembly has voted to end the embargo every year since 1991.

The administration of President Barack Obama has agreed to lift the travel ban for Cuban-Americans with family on the island, and

to ease restrictions on US telecommunications providers’ relations with Cuba. However, polls show that a slender majority of Americans still support the embargo, and it is expected to remain in place in the short-to-medium term.

For Cuban citizens, the embargo is a major source of anger towards the United States. It inspires a siege mentality, and lends credence to the idea that the sovereignty of the island is under attack. This in turn leads to the suppression of political dissent. The embargo can therefore be said to have a negative influence on the development of human and political rights in Cuba.

Due to the anti-American sentiment on the island, much of the financial aid channeled into Cuba by the United States has a counter-productive outcome. Pro-democracy activists and organizations who are in receipt of funding either directly or indirectly from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are considered counter-revolutionaries and imprisoned under Cuba’s anti-sedition laws, regardless of how the money is actually used. Even those who take money from US sources in order to buy food and medicine are considered spies, and as a result are handed lengthy prison sentences.

For Cuban citizens, the embargo is a major source of anger towards the United States. It inspires a siege mentality, and lends credence to the idea that the sovereignty of the island is under attack.

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Over the past fifty years Cuba has made notable advances in the sphere of economic, social and cultural rights,

particularly in health and education and in combating discrimination against women. Adult literacy stands at a remarkable 99.8%.

However the country’s overall human rights record continues to be of grave concern to International observers. Almost all aspects of life on the island are controlled through the Communist Party and its affiliated organisations, through the government bureaucracy and the state security apparatus.

Political opposition to Communism is not specifically outlawed in Cuba, and small opposition parties do exist. However, stringent efforts are made to ensure political conformity, with the use of criminal prosecutions (under Law 88 and Article 91), long and short-term detentions, harassment, police warnings, surveillance, house arrests, travel restrictions, exile, and politically motivated dismissals from employment.

The Cuban government refuses to allow visits to the country by human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Cuba is one of the few countries in the world that denies the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its prisons.

Cuba also refused to recognise the mandate of a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Cuba, which led to the abolition of this UN initiative in June 2007.

The ‘Black Spring’ crackdownAs a result of the popular anti-Americanism in Cuba, people who voice support of the American position are amongst the most vilified members of society. The Cuban government has been able to use Law 88 and Article 91 to take extremely harsh measures against such dissidents, with little complaint from the rest of the population.

The most notorious crackdown, which took place in March 2003, has come to be known as the ‘Primavera Negra’ (‘Black Spring’). Seventy-five

individuals – including human rights defenders, trade union activists, opposition party members, journalists, writers and librarians – were arrested and detained. These events received very little media coverage internationally, as they coincided with the US and UK invasion of Iraq.

The dissidents were tried under Law 88, which prohibits activities deemed a threat to ‘Cuba’s national and economic independence’ and/or Article 91 of the Cuban Penal Code, which proscribes acts against ‘the independence of the territorial integrity of the state’. The maximum penalty for these offences is death. The basis for the charges was that the accused had allegedly received funds and/or materials from US-based NGOs financed by the US government. The limited information available in the trial documents indicates that none of the dissidents were prosecuted for violent or recognisably criminal behaviour, but rather for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. Most of the detainees supported the Varela Project, a petition for electoral and legislative reform in Cuba that had been circulating since 1998, and which directly challenged state hegemony.

The trials were summary, lasting only a day in each case. The accused were not given sufficient time to prepare their defence, and were given no access to independent counsel. Prison terms ranged from six to twenty-eight years.

Imprisoned writers Following the ‘Black Spring’ crackdown, there are more writers in prison in Cuba than in any other country in the world, except for China and Iran. As of December 2009, PEN has a total of 30 imprisoned writers on its ‘case list’ in Latin America – twenty-six of these are in prison in Cuba.

Members of the Writers in Prison Committee of English PEN correspond directly with prisoners and their families. Through this correspondence, we know that prison conditions

Human Rights and Imprisoned Writers

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and treatment by prison officials are generally harsh and do not comply with international human rights standards.

Imprisoned writers and their families have described the following unpleasant and unsatisfactory conditions:

• they are detained in locations far from their homes, making visits from family very difficult;

• they are kept in conditions that are overcrowded, unclean and insanitary, with inadequate or no bedding, and where there is flooding and infestation, very little natural light and limited space for exercise;

• they are given food that is inadequate in quality and quantity, leaving many to rely on additional supplies brought in by their families;

• they are denied access to communications, for example telephones, visits by family members, access to writing or reading materials;

• They are threatened, harassed, restrained, beaten and assaulted, particularly when they continue to write for external publications, especially on prison conditions;

• They are kept in solitary confinement or in punishment cells for prolonged periods (up to months at a time), including for minor infractions such as singing anti-government songs;

• They are accommodated alongside dangerous and violent prisoners such as murderers.

The majority of the imprisoned writers are suffering from health complaints caused or exacerbated by the conditions and treatment they are exposed to in prison. Despite their deteriorating health status, access to adequate medical treatment is often limited.

Released WritersThe Cuban government has periodically freed dissidents after international intervention.

Since taking office in 2004, the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has acted as a mediator between the European Union and the Cuban government.

In February 2008, soon after Spain announced the resumption of cooperative programmes with Cuba, four Cuban prisoners were released, including the journalists José Gabriel Ramón Castillo and Alejandro González Raga and the independent librarian Omar Pernet Hernández, all of whom had been detained during the ‘Black Spring’. They were also given leave to travel abroad, and all four men were granted asylum in Spain, along with their families.

As of September 2009, twenty-one of the seventy-five dissidents detained in 2003 have been released, some conditionally on medical grounds. However the remaining fifty-four remain in prison, and many more individuals, including some journalists, have been arrested for openly expressing dissident political views.

Former political prisoners are essentially unemployable after they are released. They and their families are therefore forced into extreme poverty – in itself, a highly effective form of censorship.

Despite their deteriorating health status, access to adequate medical treatment is often limited.

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Freedom of expression, association and movement are severely restricted in Cuba.

All print and broadcast media are state-controlled. Some journalists manage to set themselves up as ‘independent’ journalists, writing articles for foreign websites or underground newsletters. However, laws banning anti-government propaganda, the spreading of ‘unauthorised news’ and the defaming of government officials, make this a risky undertaking.

Journalists and librarians working outside the state-sanctioned institutions routinely suffer harassment and intimidation at the hands of the authorities, and are frequently arrested, increasingly on charges of ‘social dangerousness’ or ‘pre-criminal danger’.

Foreign news agencies must employ local journalists only through government offices. Access to the internet is severely limited outside governmental offices and educational institutions. Despite this, blogs with a more honest take on daily life in Cuba are springing up, often written by young people and professional journalists.

LiteratureOne area where free expression is less tightly regulated is that of fiction. Authors such as Leonardo Padura Fuentes and Pedro Juan

Gutiérrez portray an unflattering view of Cuba, highlighting the contradictions of society and undermining the idea that the country is a socialist paradise. Their characters experience corruption, participate shamelessly in the informal economy and black markets, and complain about the grip that the elites have over the country.

Despite the criticism, the Cuban authorities do not usually harass the authors of these books. Print runs for such novels are small, and since only wealthy Cubans can afford to buy and consume novels, such literature remains a minority pastime on the island, and therefore politically insignificant. Authors such as Padura and Gutiérrez are much more widely read abroad, where their works are unlikely to destabilize the regime.

Another barrier to free expression is the Instituto del Libro, which must approve all books published on the island. While there is little formal censorship and no official ‘banning’ of books, the bureaucracy involved in gaining approval for publication suffices to discourage many potential authors from seeking wider dissemination of their creations, or even taking up the pen in the first place. Therefore, there exists a significant reservoir of unpublished literature, which is unlikely to find an audience in Cuba itself, but could possibly find a readership in other markets.

Freedom of expression

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Other artistsCompared to writers, those working in the ‘plastic arts’ (traditionally sculpture and modelling, but also all visual arts) find a much greater space for free expression in Cuba. Critical commentary of the regime in such work is likely to be veiled and open to different interpretations. Unlike the news media, artists’ associations tend to exist outside the formal apparatus of the state, allowing these artists a greater freedom to pick their subject matter.

By contrast, popular mass-movement art forms receive greater scrutiny from the authorities. For example, the authorities have attempted to co-opt hip-hop artists, or raperos, by establishing the Agencia Cubana de Rap, a union for rap-artists affiliated with the Union of Young Communists’ cultural arm, Asociación Hermanos Saíz. These artists have found that their opportunities for free expression are being reduced, as the Cuban government begins to understand the significance of rap music as a means of mass communication and storytelling.

Internet Access and BlogsA major barrier to freedom of information (and therefore, free expression) in Cuba is the lack of Internet access available to ordinary Cubans. Furthermore, those people who do have Internet access (for example, academics) find that the service is extremely slow. Hotels often have Internet access for foreign tourists, but the use of these computers by ordinary Cubans is considered suspicious by the security services.

Despite this, many people have turned to blogging. This new generation of activists tend to be independent of the traditional dissident movements and unions, and most are careful not to directly challenge the regime. Instead, they host robust debates on the nature of the Cuban system and culture.

The most prominent blogger on the island at present is Yoani Sanchez. Her blog Generación Y reportedly receives over 1 million hits per month,

and is translated into at least 15 languages. It has won Sánchez the Ortega y Gasset prize and the Mary Moors Cabot award from Columbia University for internet journalism, although the Cuban authorities have denied Yoani permission to leave the country in order to receive the honours. In recent months, she has begun to suffer increased levels of harassment from the authorities. On 6th December 2009, she and her associates were detained and beaten by state security agents on their way to an event in Havana. You can read Yoani’s blog at:www.desdecuba.com/generationy

The WiPC bulletin on the assault on Yoani can be viewed at:http://www.englishpen.org/writersinprison/bulletins/cubainternetwritersdetainedandbeaten/

Positive Steps to promote free expression in Cuba• Promoting and reviewing the literature that

does emerge from Cuba will expand the audience for such literature, and encourage the publication of more books in more markets.

• Publishers should investigate the untapped reservoir of unpublished work that exists on the island, and bring the best new writers to international markets.

• Cultural critics should disseminate and discuss Cuban art and music with greater regularity.

• Web designers should follow accessibility guidelines to create websites that are as quick to load as possible. An option to view a text-only version of the site will ensure more people on Cuba are able to download and read the content.

• Gifts of USB disc drives allow Cubans to disseminate articles of interest to those who do not have an internet connection.

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Why is English PEN campaigning on Cuba?PEN is an international association of writers, editors and publishers, who believe passionately in the right to freedom of expression. The free flow of ideas and art, both within a country and internationally, is the only way to promote fellowship and understanding between the peoples of the world. In 2009, the worldwide network of PEN centres chose to campaign on ‘Freedom to Write in the Americas’.

Several factors inspired English PEN’s choice to campaign specifically on Cuba:

• Per capita, Cuba imprisons the greatest number of writers, anywhere in the world. It runs third only to China and Iran for the highest number of writers imprisoned.

• Cuba operates by far the most hostile approach to free expression anywhere in Latin America. Of the thirty imprisoned writers on International PEN’s current case-list, twenty-six of these are in prison in Cuba.

• A total of seven Cuban imprisoned writers are Honorary Members of English PEN, with each Honorary Member receiving personal correspondence from members of our Writers in Prison Committee.

• Following the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January 2009, changes in the American policy towards Cuba (the lifting of the travel embargo; the proposed closure of Guantanamo Bay) meant a renewed media focus on the island.

Why single out Cuba?We do not campaign exclusively on Cuba. In previous years we have campaigned on behalf of thousands of writers of conscience in all parts of the world. Recent country campaigns have focused on Turkey, Azerbaijan, China and Burma.

How does the US Trade Embargo affect free speech in Cuba?English PEN joins the British Government and the EU in condemning the embargo’s continued operation against the Cuban economy. The embargo is regularly condemned by UN bodies as having negative economic and social effects on the Cuban people. It is also undoubtedly a factor in determining the Cuban government’s attitude to civil rights and political issues on the island. The embargo is the most visible evidence of a foreign threat to Cuban sovereignty, providing a reason for repressive and authoritarian laws.

However, we believe that the Cuban government’s hostility to freedom of expression is far more than a reaction to the embargo. Supression of political dissent, and the continued usage of ‘social dangerousness’ laws, cannot be said to be solely a function of the blockade.

Does PEN want to see an change of the political system in Cuba?English PEN is a non-political charity, and takes no view on the political structure of Cuba. However, we do wish to see the democratic promises of the 1959 Revolución fulfilled, which included a strong commitment to human rights. Those promises include full protection for freedom of expression.

English PEN applauds the fact that Cuba became a signatory to the ICCPR on 28th February 2008. We now wish to see this treaty ratified by the Cuban parliament, mandating the government to make wider provisions for freedom of expression.

Does PEN discourage people from travelling to Cuba?Certainly not. English PEN believes in internationalism and cultural exchange, and is in no way trying to deter travellers from visiting Cuba. Tourism is a fundamental part of the Cuban economy, and a drop in tourism revenues would harm ordinary citizens.

Frequently Asked Questions

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However, we are asking tourists to travel with their eyes open to the human rights abuses in the country, and to be aware that the face of Cuba presented to foreigners is different from that experienced by its citizens. We also believe that an improvement of the human rights situation in Cuba will encourage more tourists, especially writers and other artists, to visit.

What can tourists do to help freedom of expression in Cuba?Individual tourists to Cuba can promote free expression while experiencing the island’s rich culture. Two of the most basic problems that Cubans face are a shortage of basic consumer items, and lack of access to information and literature. The Hotel Kuba project, run by the Czech Human Rights NGO People in Need, suggests several actions that tourists can take in Cuba. These acts present minimal risk for tourists themselves and for the Cubans they meet:

• Leaving your holiday paperback in Cuba, when you have finished reading it, is a simple way to increase the flow of literature

into Cuba. You can give books to friends you have made, or simply donate them to local people you meet, such as waiters or taxi drivers. Books in Spanish are obviously preferable, but books in other languages are also welcome - Cubans are beginning to learn English in greater numbers.

• Donations of simple writing materials, such as pens, pencils, paper and notebooks are also welcomed. While these are available in Cuba, they are extremely expensive.

• Consumer digital technology is in short supply in Cuba. Short-wave radios, inexpensive digital cameras and portable disc drives (USB memory sticks, for example) are almost completely unavailable to Cuban citizens, and make ideal presents for friends made during your stay.

Such actions express support for Cuban culture, and the human rights of ordinary Cubans. This fosters a vibrant and independent culture, essential for the success of any nation.

The website of Hotel Kuba is:www.hotel-kuba.cz (Czech).

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Members of English PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee correspond regularly with writers of conscience

and their families. Below are excerpts from some of the letters we have received from correspondents in Cuba.

Prison conditions: “The most worrisome aspect of this situation is the deplorable conditions of his confinement. He has been placed in a humid punishment cell with the dimensions of a cage and with a hole for his basic bodily functions. He has a slab for a bed and doesn’t get enough light.”From the daughter of one of the ‘Black Spring’ prisoners

“The Cuban government has cancelled all family visits. We have no idea whether he is dead or alive.”From the daughter of one of the ‘Black Spring’ prisoners

“The inhumane nature of his imprisonment is the source of his deteriorating health and chronic pain and discomfort.”From the daughter of one of the ‘Black Spring’ prisoners

“It has been 25 days since my father was transferred and his family has received no news of his current status.”From the daughter of one of the ‘Black Spring’ prisoners

Effects on the family:“My mother is scourged because she is a Lady in White who has not stopped supporting the cause of his freedom, walking in silence around Saint Rita, a church in Havana where the women relatives of these prisoners protest every Sunday.”From the daughter of one of the ‘Black Spring’ prisoners. The ‘Damas de Blanco’ (‘Ladies in White’) are a civil society group who hold vigils, campaigning for the release of their relatives.

“His two boys, both university graduates, are under a cloud as sons of a dissident.”From the WiPC minder of one of the ‘Black Spring’ prisoners

Released prisoners:“Every time that someone knocks at the door, I cannot rid myself of the idea that it is the police coming to take me away; entirely possible in this totalitarian system.”From a ‘Black Spring’ prisoner, almost four years after his release on humanitarian grounds.

From the WiPC Post Bag

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Foreign & Commonwealth Office“In violation of the basic right of free expression, criticism of the regime is not tolerated and outspoken dissidents and human rights defenders face considerable harassment such as threats of violence, intimidation of family members, arbitrary arrest and personal attacks in the state-run media ... We remain concerned about the continued use of charges of ‘social dangerousness’.”

FCO Annual Report on Human Rights 2008:http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/publications/publications/annual-reports/human-rights-report1/

Human Rights Watch“The government maintains a media monopoly on the island, ensuring that freedom of expression is virtually nonexistent ... In 2008 the country signed the two fundamental international human rights treaties [ICCPR and ICESCR] and commuted the death sentences of several prisoners ... yet ... the repressive machinery built over almost five decades of Fidel Castro’s rule remains intact and continues to systematically deny people their basic rights.”http://www.hrw.org/en/node/79343

Amnesty International“Freedom of expression remained limited, with all mass media outlets remaining under state control. Journalists working for independent and alternative news agencies continued to face harassment and intimidation in the form of short-term detention and monitoring by security officers.”

Amnesty International Report 2009http://thereport.amnesty.org/en/regions/americas/cuba

Committee to Protect Journalists“The EU must call on the government of Cuban President Raúl Castro Ruz to immediately and unconditionally release all journalists unjustly imprisoned for exercising their basic human right to free expression and grant freedom of information to all Cubans.”

Letter to EU President: CPJ urges EU leaders to take action in Cuba:http://cpj.org/2009/06/cpj-urges-eu-leaders-to-take-action-in-cuba.php

International Press InstituteIn a call for the release of journalists jailed in Cuba, the director of the IPI, David Dadge, notes: “Cuba’s suppression of dissenting voices, thoroughly and systematically carried out for so many years, strongly affects our ability to understand and assess the situation in the country. As many countries are reviewing their foreign policies toward Cuba, the need to listen to those suppressed voices becomes even greater.”

IPI statement and video on rights violation in Cuba:http://www.freemedia.at/index.php?id=288&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=4451&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=13&cHash=2e227d17b8

Reporters Without BordersCuba ranks at 169 out of 173 countries on the Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières) Press Freedom Index 2008, alongside Burma and North Korea.

Index and reports at:http://www.rsf.org/en-classement794-2008.htmlhttp://www.rsf.org/en-rapport174-Cuba.html

Freedom HouseIn the American think tank’s annual global survey of rights and liberties, Freedom in the World, Cuba is included in the ‘Worst of the Worst’ index for the most repressive societies.http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/WoW09/WOW%202009.pdf

International Views

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Return to Sender: An essay by Raúl Rivero

The three Chinese Everready bicycles were on the road to Ullao, and each one carried two men. Of the six of

them, three would return to the city later. The others, Luis, Gaspar and Alberto, were going to risk their lives to reach American land, on the military base of Caimanera.

Thirty kilometres from Guantánamo, in an unnamed place they had picked beforehand after canvassing the area nine times, they said goodbye. It was well into the night already, past eight o’clock. The moon was full and bright, fixed in the sky. Luis, Gaspar and Alberto were carrying twelve ‘McCastro’ burgers – what Cubans maliciously call the rancid-tasting patty, made of pork and soy and shaped like a meatball – three bottles of lemonade and the inner tube of a motorcycle tyre. With these provisions, they entered the wilderness.

They walked until four in the morning, when the moon had sunk and left everything in darkness. They slept on the grass and woke early. It was Sunday, 3 December 1995, and although it was officially winter in Cuba, a powerful red sun was rising up from Maisi Point.

They had some of the burgers and a few sips of lemonade for breakfast, on a hill full of thorny shrubs and rocks from where they could see the soldiers moving at the Cuban post.

They dozed and talked about their friends and family and the holidays in Guantánamo, as if it already belonged to the past. Luis was afraid the memories of his wife’s face would blur, when he recalled their first meetings in the little park and Camilo’s ceramics workshop.

They were waiting to complete the final leg of their journey towards the coast. The moon returned early and lit up the cloudless sky.

In the dangerous jump down to the small shore of reefs and turbid sand, Alberto almost fell and killed himself. Around ten, they reached the coast, where a strong sea was awaiting them. They finished their food before wading into the water. Alberto looked back towards where he imagined the rest of Cuba to be: Guantánamo, Santiago, Camagüey, Santa Clara, Matanzas

and Havana, and said, ‘There I leave you, communism.’ Gaspar had cramps. Luis entered praying.

Alberto didn’t know how to swim and clung to the smaller innertube. Gaspar flailed his arms unceremoniously, but kept afloat. Luis, little by little, was taking over the rubber ring as Alberto started complaining and becoming delirious. Two hours later, Luis realized that the sea was returning them to the same spot. Alberto was whimpering and lying breathless on the ring. They would have to swim back to land.

Luis chose a spot where he imagined the Cuban coast was closest and started swimming towards it as he pushed Alberto. ‘God, give me the strength to save this man,’ Luis thought. ‘Give me the strength and the serenity.’

Since the sea was turbulent and he couldn’t see the coastline very well, Luis was frightened that a wave would throw them onto the jagged rocks. But right away he felt himself being lifted by bitter, smooth froth. When he came to, the three of them were on firm ground. Alberto was semi-conscious and mute. Gaspar, spent and covered with small cuts. Luis felt a sharp pain in his left foot. Around his ankle, he felt a deep, moist wound that burned like a grill.

Monday, 4 December, and the trio were on Cuba’s coast again. With the sun in front of him, on his knees on the rough rocks, Luis knew he was just fifty metres from the Cuban guards’ watchtower. ‘We’re prisoners, oh God, we’re prisoners,’ he said.

Convinced that his two friends wouldn’t make it to the American military base, he suggested Gaspar take Alberto out to the road and return to Guantánamo. He felt spirited enough to try it again. Or they could call the guards over and turn themselves in. But Alberto refused.

They decided to hide and wait for nightfall. They had a whole day ahead of them with no water or food.

Luis, who had the small inner tube, hid it among some leaves close to where he buried himself under slates of stone and sand.

An unknown voice, strong and authoritarian,

17

Three American soldiers helped Luis climb out of the water. They handcuffed him face down on the truck’s floor and drove him to an immigration office on the base.

woke him from sleep. ‘García, go get the rifles. I’ve got two sons of bitches here.’ Then he heard Gaspar: ‘What do you need rifles for when there are about forty of you and two of us?’

Luis watched the scene from his hiding spot. He could see military boots going to and fro, but the rest was left to his imagination. Until, just two metres in front of him, he saw them walk past in a line, en route to the border patrol,

the guards’ boots like part of a parade, interrupted by Alberto and Gaspar’s dirty, bare and injured feet.

Luis remained hidden all day. He waited until the watchtower’s searchlight came on so that he could place where the Cubans were. When they turned it off, Luis came out of his hole, picked up the innertube and walked towards the sea. It was calm, that night the sea was very calm, with white clouds obscuring the moon.

‘Well, God, after you,’ Luis said. In the water, he felt his hands freeze, his

chest hurt and he felt shaky and dizzy. Suddenly he was in his house in Guantánamo and about to lie down in his bed. Caritina was saying, ‘Don’t fall asleep, Luis, eat something, don’t fall asleep, eat something.’ ‘I’m delirious, I’m crazy,’ he thought and started to swim to the shore.

It started to rain, one of those tropical rainstorms, and Luis, turning and opening his mouth, felt calmed and strengthened. That’s how he got to land. In front of him, a crab sat on a big, firm stone half hidden by the mist. Luis hit it with a piece of wood. He hit it hard three times and started to grind it. He felt comforted by the bitter, gelatinous substance.

He found a dry place and lay down to sleep. On Tuesday, 5 December, Luis realized he

had slept 200 metres away from a Cuban guard post. In broad daylight, he returned to the sea. He swam directly at the American military base, or at least towards where he thought the base was. He swam rhythmically, in pain and a little confused. He couldn’t see anything on the coast because of a promontory extending into the sea. He swam forcefully to pass this sliver of land and saw the US military watchtower.

Then he was swimming painlessly, tirelessly, as if he were twenty years old and was bathing in the Guaso River, in Guantánamo. He swam weightlessly until he could read the tiles on the military shack’s walls which announced in big white letters, ‘Welcome. You’ve reached the land of liberty.’

Three American soldiers helped Luis climb out of the water. They handcuffed him face down on the truck’s floor and drove him to an immigration office on the base.

The US authorities gave him a change of clothing (shorts, T-shirt and underwear). They tended to his wounds in the hospital. He spent fourteen days waiting for the decision that ‘had to come from Washington’.

On 18 December, at six in the morning, an official appeared at the camp where Luis was detained along with twenty other Cubans and told him that in two hours he would be returning to Cuba because his application for asylum hadn’t been approved.

The immigration agreements between Cuba and the US, signed 12 May 1995, stipulate the return to the island of anyone who tries to illegally enter American territory and cannot prove that he would be at risk of going to jail in his own country. Two hours after the official’s visit, Luis picked up a small bag with deodorant, soap and some razors and was driven to the border along with three compatriots, two from Santiago and one from Villa Clara. There, he was given a document that would allow him to enter the US Interests Section in Cuba, so that he could start the process to immigrate legally. At eight in the morning, sixteen days after leaving Guantánamo by bicycle with Alberto and Gaspar, Luis Sánchez Díaz, forty-one years

18

old, construction technician, former member of the Union of Young Communists, Jehovah’s Witness, and father of two children, walked towards a white line. On the other side of the painted line was his homeland.

When he made his first step back into Cuba, a policeman came up to him and said in his ear, ‘Walk next to me, gaze forward, and be careful about making any gestures.’ ‘That’s how I knew I was in my country,’ Luis tells me on an April morning, in Havana, 1997.

‘I felt something sharp inside suffocating me, because I couldn’t understand how I could risk my life so many times to reach my friends, and then they turned me back to the enemy.’

Raúl Rivero is a Cuban poet and a former director of CubaPress. He was one of seventy-five dissidents arrested in a government crackdown in March 2003, accused of being financed and directed by the US Interests Section in Havana, and was sentenced under draconian laws. Rivero was freed on 30 November 2004 after having been transferred from prison to a military hospital in the capital, Havana, for medical tests. He had served twenty months of a twenty year sentence for ‘acting against Cuban independence and attempting to divide Cuban territorial unity’ and for writing ‘against the government’, amongst other charges. He currently lives in exile in Spain, where he continues to write.

The article above is taken from Another Sky: Voices of Conscience from Around the World, edited by Carole Seymour-Jones and Lucy Popescu (Profile, 2007)

19

Terence Blacker: We Can’t Ignore Cuba’s Dark Side

It turns out that freedom of expression is largely a matter of fashion. Some acts of censorship are titillating and promotable,

while others are downright embarrassing. So, in the week when there was considerable fuss over the alleged banning of a book at the Dubai Literary Festival, the deteriorating health under appalling conditions of 21 Cuban writers, journalists and librarians serving long prison sentences barely merits a paragraph – and is then denied by an apparently sane and respectable British academic.

Cuba, of course, is tricky. It is a plucky little country which has defied the bullying of its mighty neighbour. Its revolution has become the stuff of Hollywood films. It has a good health service, wonderful music and lovely cigars. The Castro regime is one which, for romantic lefties living in comfort in the West, still represents the smiling face of revolutionary socialism.

In this context, it is an awkward fact that a group of people who are similarly independent-minded and articulate, but who happen to be Cuban, were rounded up by the authorities in 2001. The crime of these 75 writers was that they were arguing for democracy. In short order – all the trials took place over two days and behind closed doors – they were sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment. The families of those who remain in prison tell increasingly grim stories of beatings, solitary confinement, dire food and medical conditions causing serious illness in some cases.

It was to this little-publicised aspect of Cuban life which the writers’ organisation English PEN brought attention on this month’s 50th anniversary of the Castro revolution. The reaction, as is so often the case with Cuba, has been bizarre and vaguely shameful. In the past, Ken Livingstone has dismissed criticism of the Cuban government’s human rights record as coming from those “with a very right-wing perspective”. This week’s Fidelista has taken a different tack. Rebutting PEN’s call to arms in a letter to The Guardian, Professor Michael Chanan concedes that there might be Cuban

prisoners “classed from outside as political” but they are kept in good conditions. Chanan himself had, he says, filmed political prisoners in 1986: they had actually “declined to let us film their quarters because they didn’t want people to see how decent they were.”

In other words, like Ken Livingstone, George Galloway and others, Professor Chanan believes that PEN, Amnesty International and indeed the United Nations Commission on Human Rights are inventing the grim circumstances of the imprisoned writers (details of which can be found on www.englishpen.org).

On his website, the professor makes great claim for the new freedom enjoyed by Cuban film-makers; it is apparently only those who argue for a second political party who might find themselves in a bit of trouble. There are many like him who prefer their illusions about the Castro to remain unblemished. If these people are truly interested in allowing the truth to be told, they will convince the Cuban authorities to allow visits to the imprisoned writers. So far, the prisoners have kept out of sight and contact from the outside world. If that remains the case, only one conclusion can be drawn.

Tony Benn, a great champion of the Castro revolution, once said that “socialism has always been about democracy, human rights and internationalism”. For Cuba, one out of three is no longer enough.

First published in The Independent on 24th February 2009. Terence Blacker is a member of English PEN

“socialism has always been about democracy, human rights and internationalism”. For Cuba, one out of three is no longer enough.

My first feeling on reading about the journalists Fabio Prieto Llorente, Lester Luis Gonzalez Penton,

Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, Jose Luis Garcia Paneque, Julio Cesar Galvez Rodriguez, Adolfo Fernandez Sainz, and Pedro Arguelles Moran, was sheer anger. They were imprisoned in 2003 for alleged breaches of a law that is supposed to protect ‘the national independence and economy of Cuba’, and they – along with several others – are being held in squalid and brutalising conditions that have severely impaired their health. How can any state treat its own citizens like this for the simple act of carrying out their calling as journalists – in other words, for finding out the truth and writing it clearly, or for expressing a political opinion?

The second feeling that came to me was admiration for their courage in resisting this persecution. I have never been put to the test as they have; I fear I would not be very brave. The existence of men such as this is an inspiration, and a reminder that courage is the foundation on which every other virtue stands. Our good fortune is that courage exists; our curse is that it is necessary.

The third emotion I felt was a complicated one, and I had to think hard to clarify it. It had to do with the simple and uninformed, but genuine, feelings of goodwill and even affection that can spring up in someone for a place they have never visited, a culture they have never experienced at first hand. I have enjoyed the work of writers such as Alejo Carpentier and Guillermo Cabrera Infante; I have relished the paintings of Wifredo Lam; I have loved the music of Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez, Compay Segundo. I found in all of these artistic forms a sensibility that was immensely rich because of the mingling of the European and the African heritage of the Cuban people, a complexity and a subtlety that was expressed with great force and clarity.

Added to this was the knowledge that in the past fifty years, since Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government took power, two important aspects of social welfare – health and education – have

Phillip Pullman: The Imprisoned Writers in Cuba

been protected and encouraged. The result is a ratio of one GP per 600 people, compared to the UK’s figure of one per 1800, and a literacy rate of 99.8%.

So in my naïve and ignorant way I’ve been disposed to feel that Cuba was a place and a people to admire, to like, to feel goodwill towards.

And yet there has always been this contradiction: the undeniable achievements of Cuba were heavily subsidised by the Soviet Union, and the price the Cuban people had to pay was a Soviet-style repression of intellectual freedom. Teach people to read, and then forbid them to do so. Give them all the materials for intellectual, artistic, political expression, and then punish anyone who makes use of them. It is a source of shame; it should be embarrassing; it should make every Cuban politician and diplomat blush with mortification.

We have to hope and act as if laws that suppress freedom of expression are sandcastles, and information is a tide. We have to hope that eventually it will be possible in Cuba to write and read all kinds of opinion without risk of persecution. When that day comes, I hope these brave journalists will be in good enough health to enjoy it, but things are not looking good at the moment for some of them. Beatings, poor food, dirty drinking water, hunger strikes, cramped and insanitary cells, restricted family visits, the withholding of medicine, the constant threat of danger from other prisoners, some of whom are encouraged by the authorities to harass political captives – their treatment represents an unremitting and merciless assault on health and dignity as well as on freedom.

So we must continue to press for their release, and urge the Cuban authorities to show some respect for human rights, especially the right that is basic to the civic and cultural health of every society: the right to think, to speak, to write and to read in freedom.First published in OPEN Magazine, Autumn 2009. Phillip Pullman is a member of English PEN20

21

Newspegs

Cuba• 1 January 2010 – National holiday: Liberation

Day – 51st Anniversary of the Triumph of the Revolution

• 18-28 January 2010 – 51st Casa de las Américas Literary Prize (Cuban Cultural Award)

• 11-21 February 2010 – International Book Fair, Cuba

• 1 May 2010 – National holiday: International Workers’ Day

• Mid-December 2010 – 6th International Jazz Plaza Festival

• May 2010 – 15th International Festival of Poetry of Havana

• May 2010 – Cuba International Tourism Fair (trade)

• June 2010 – 13th International Colloquium

on Ernest Hemingway (Ciudad de La Hemingway San Cristóbal)

• 26 July 2010 – National holiday: Festivities for the Day of National Rebellion

• 30th Festival of the Caribbean (Santiago de Cuba)

• October 2010 – National holiday: Anniversary of the beginning of the Independence Wars

• October-November 2010 – 14th Havana Theatre Festival

World• 18 March: Cuban crackdown on dissidents

– the Black Spring (2003)• 21 March: World Poetry Day (UNESCO) • 3 May: World Press Freedom Day• 15 November: International Day of the

Imprisoned Writer

Credits

Produced by Tamsin Leach, Cat Lucas and Robert Sharp for English PEN. Edited by David Smith.

Many thanks to Terence Blacker, Phillip Pullman and Jeremy Gerard, Carole Seymour-Jones, Neil McKenna, Jonathan Heawood, Sara Whyatt, Tamsin Mitchell, and Dita Grubnerova.

Many thanks also to the academics, artists, campaigners and officials who attended our round-table event on 21st January 2010.

Design by Bobby Agrawal

This briefing is provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. You are free to reproduce our text - even for commercial use - provided you credit English PEN. You are also free to remix the text and provide your own translations, provided you also attach the same Creative Commons licence to the work you produce.

For more information, visitwww.creativecommons.org

However, the articles on pages 16, 19 and 20 are reproduced are © the authors, reproduced with their permission, and all rights are reserved

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International PEN, the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 and today has 145 centres in 104 countries. PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists and their translators) aims to promote literature, defend freedom of expression, and build a world community of writers.

English PEN pursues these aims through a range of activities, from events and campaigns to publications and educational programmes. For more information call 020 7324 2535 or visit www.englishpen.org. If you would like to join us then visit the website and click on ‘membership’.

The Writers in Prison Committee was founded in 1960. It leads PEN’s campaigning work on behalf of writers around the world, who are persecuted, imprisoned or attacked for exercising their right to free expression, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 2010, the Writers in Prison Committee celebrates five decades of campaigning work for imprisoned writers around the world.

‘WHEN ANOTHERWRITER INANOTHER HOUSEIS NOT FREE, NOWRITER IS FREE’ORHAN PAMUK