Chronicle on Cuba - August 2004

Domestic Affairs

August 1: “El Mejunje”, a cultural center in the Cuban city of Santa Clara, draws both gays and straights, adding yet another attraction to this city. "El Mejunje," which means mixture, is a social-cultural project created 20 years ago to promote openness and tolerance. "Undoubtedly, El Mejunje is a unique center in Cuba for the breadth of its cultural projects and for the kind of people who come to this place. There is nothing else like it. It has never marginalized anyone and it takes in people who were a bit rejected in other places," center director Ramon Silverio said. The cultural center, located in downtown Santa Clara, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of Havana, was for many years a venue for transvestite shows, and they still show up on the program occasionally. (EFE, 1/8/04)

August 1: Members of the Democratic Party November 30 "Frank País", collateral with the November 30 Movement in Exile and members of the “20 th of May” Movement, created a project they named "Liberty Project", with the objective of letting the world know of their support to the measures implemented last June 30, 2004, by the President of the United States, George W. Bush.  Promoters of this project in Cuba believe that the measures are extremely important for the Cuban people for they will force the regime towards a peaceful transition in the island. [Liberty Project] (Netfor Cuba, 1/8/04)

August 2: The last group of Cuban athletes bound for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games were seen off at the Jose Marti International Airport by local Olympic Committee Chair Jose Ramon Fernandez. Representatives of 14 disciplines including gymnast Erick López, canoeists Ledy F. Balceiro and Ibrahim Rojas, cyclist Yoanka González and Greco-Roman and free style wrestlers, are the 137-strong delegation that will be training in different European countries. (Prensa Latina, 2/8/04)

August 2: A telephone exchange in Havana caught fire, interrupting communications in several municipalities, informed the Cuba Telecommunications Company (ETECSA). The disaster took place at the Luz Plant located in the Lawton district, municipality of Diez de Octubre, which serves around 1,500 customers, said a source from ETECSA. (EFE, 2/8/04)

August 3: The western Cuban province of Pinar del Rio has reduced its infant mortality rate to 4.9 percent during 2004, with 17 deaths less than in a similar span last year, Granma newspaper published. According to Granma, Sandino and Guane -two of the westernmost municipalities there- registered the province’s best results, as their infant mortality rate for every thousand live births has so far remained zero. (Prensa Latina, 3/8/04)

August 4: Imprisoned journalist Normando Hernández González has been kept in a punishment cell for over 90 days, after he declared himself "plantado" (a protest for not receiving the treatment political prisoners should). Hernández’ relatives have denounced that they haven’t been allowed to visit him in prison since last May, the organization Madres y Mujeres Anti-Represión por Cuba (MAR por Cuba) said. The independent journalist began his “plantado” strike after he was “brutally beaten and dragged” by the guards at Kilo 5 1⁄2 prison, in Pinar del Río, where he was sent for a 25 years sentence in April 2003. (Netfor Cuba, 4/8/04)

August 4: The editor-in-chief of the Cuban magazine Vitral, Dagoberto Valdes Hernandez, said that Cuba is in need more than ever of “a climate of reconciliation, a language of reconciliation, gestures of reconciliation, attitudes of reconciliation and a future of reconciliation.” In an article titled “ Cese la Crispación: Venga la Reconciliación,” (“No More Tensions: It’s Time for Reconciliation”) Valdés explained that the country’s present “climate of confrontation does not help any kind of good cause” and “in the wake of vote-catching measures from abroad we need to react calmly focusing on solving our own problems from within, among ourselves.” (ACI, 4/8/04)

August 4: The influential specialized magazine Sports Illustrated has predicted that Cuba will once again head Latin American nations and will finish 8th in the medal standings in the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. The US sports magazine noted that Cuban athletes could achieve 29 medals and be placed 8th in the world games. (Radio Habana Cuba, 4/8/04)

August 4: One of 75 political dissidents arrested in a government crackdown last year was in the hospital after suffering a heart attack behind bars. Margarito Broche, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for allegedly working with US diplomats to undermine Cuba's communist government, was transferred to Salvador Allende Hospital, said his wife, Maria de la Caridad Noa. Noa and other relatives waited outside the hospital in hopes of seeing the 47-year-old Broche. There was no official word on his condition. (AP, 5/8/04)

August 6: Cuba's socialist government has sent thousands of health professionals on a crusade to other developing countries, with high points like the 10,000 doctors actively in service in Venezuela. But complaints have been heard back home over the months-long absence of healthcare specialists. The exportation of medical services is not always understood by a Cuban population accustomed over the years to a quality system of specialist services as well as primary health care. Castro himself is aware of the complaints. "It could very possibly be true that in the midst of so much movement there is no doctor in a certain place for a short time. These situations must be immediately resolved," he said in a speech in September last year. Other frequent complaints are the scarcity of certain medicines, and the deterioration of health facilities over the last ten years. (IPS, 6/8/04)

August 6: Cuban dissident Margarito Broche Espinosa, one of 75 mostly pro-democracy activists and independent journalists sentenced to prison more than a year ago, is in "stable" condition after suffering a heart attack in jail, according to his wife, Maria Caridad Noa. "His health is delicate although right now he is stable. His blood pressure and heart rate under control," she told the press. Doctors told Noa that her husband is "progressing quite well," and if he continues to improve, he could be transferred to intermediate care”. (EFE, 6/8/04)

August 8: Fidel Castro presented 797 new nurses with their titles in a ceremony held at the Astral theater in Havana. In this way, the Escuela de Formación Emergente de Enfermería Republic of Panama, in Cotorro municipality, supplies new staff to hospitals and policlinics with a third group of graduates to meet the shortage of nurses in the capital. (Prensa Latina, 8/8/04)

August 9: In the absence of any official data, which is constantly denied by Cuban authorities, Cuban dissidents have prepared a report indicating that the number of high security prisons on the island has gone from 1 to 45; women’s prisons from 1 to 12; and detention centres for minors have increased from 1 to 8. In the course of four and a half decades, there has been a disproportionate increase of prisons and inmates, according to the Cuban Commission of Human Rights (CCDH), a banned but tolerated organization headed by activist Elizardo Sánchez. According to the CCDH, in 1958 there were 5.5 million people in Cuba and 14 penitentiaries, which housed 4000 inmates. Today, with a population of 11.2 million, the number of inmates is estimated to reach 100 thousand, held in around 200 prisons. (Reforma, 9/8/04)

August 9: Magalys Suárez Martínez, a delegate from the National Independent Labour Confederation of Cuba (CONIC) in Villa Clara, informed that the Independent Teachers and Health Workers unions were recently created. Ricardo Sanfiel Bermúdez and Dr. Ibey Rodríguez Valdés were elected as their respective secretary-generals. The union leader also added that with the addition of these two the number of unions created by the CONIC in central Cuba now totals four. (Cubanet, 9/8/04)

August 9: Political prisoner Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, is on hunger strike. In a statement, the dissident organization Directorio Democrático Cubano denounced that Herrera began the strike in protest for ill treatments received in jail. (Cubanoticias, 9/8/04)

August 10: Cuba's highest-profile dissenter, Oswaldo Payá, who heads the Christian Liberation Movement, called for renewed efforts to press for the release of all political prisoners. Payá's plea for the release of all Cuban political prisoners is aimed at governments and international bodies like the United Nations and the Organization of American States. The campaign had been started by the wives and relatives of the prisoners. “We think that this amnesty campaign that they had initiated should be a priority”, Payá said. “The campaign for the liberation of all our brothers should go on regardless of any political position or platform”, he added in a public statement given to the press in Havana. [Primero la Amnistía para los Prisioneros Políticos](EFE, Sun Sentinel, 11/8/04)

August 11: Three Cuban dissidents, installed in a house of one of Havana’s neighborhoods, are in their 11th day of hunger strike demanding freedom for political prisoners in the island. Carlos Miguel Lopez, 50, Francisco Moure, 44 and Yusimin Gil, 27, began the strike on August 1st in a house of La Lira, in the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, where they have had only water, with their mouths covered with plaster, sitting under a Cuban flag next to a wall full of signs that demand unconditional freedom for all political prisoners. (El Nuevo Herald, 11/8/04)

August 11: Vladimiro Roca, leader of the dissident coalition Todos Unidos, said that La Lira strikers are members of ground organizations not known by the Cuban population. But, Roca acknowledged that their attitude has generated solidarity and concern among residents of the neighborhood where the strikers have installed themselves. “Total control by the [Cuban] regime does not allow that the population know what is going on”, he said. ''Although the government will not attend to their demands, the strike will have its impact in international public opinion, that is well informed of what is happening in Cuba, ” he added. Members of the National Commission for Reconciliation and Human Rights have visited the strikers, who will finish their protest on August 13, Fidel Castro’s birthday. (El Nuevo Herald, 11/8/04)

August 11: The collapse of a decaying building in Old Havana left at least one dead and an unspecified number hurt, said a press report. The accident took place late morning, when the facade on the third floor crumbled down unexpectedly. (AFP, 11/8/04)

August 11: Cuban political prisoner Cándido Terry Carbonell was released from prison after a two-year sentence. Carbonell Terry was sent to jail after walking along the streets with a 1.60 meter poster that said “Down with the dictatorship”. (AdCuba.Org, 17/8/04)

August 11: Clara Lourdes Prieto, sister of independent journalist and political prisoner Fabio Prieto Llorente, reported that her brother began a hunger strike in Kilo 8 prison, Camagüey. The prisoner is demanding to be moved to a prison closer to his home, in Isla de la Juventud. (Europa Press, 19/8/04)

August 12: Political prisoner Léster González Pentón informed his relatives that he has been transferred from the Kilo 7 Prison in Camagüey to another one in Santa Clara, closer to his home. González Pentón has been serving a 20-year sentence since March 2003. He is the fourth member of the group of 75 to be transferred in recent hours. (Cubanet, 13/8/04)

August 19: Cuba called on unions and neighborhood groups to mobilize members for a massive clean-up effort to pick up trees and debris flung in the streets when Hurricane Charley ripped through the island on its way to Florida. The effort is necessary to help speed up recovery in Charley's aftermath, Pedro Saez, the Communist Party's first secretary for Havana, told Cuba's National Information Agency. (AP, 19/8/04)

August 19: For Manuel Vázquez, prison was hell, a place of rats and roaches, bedbugs and mosquitoes. In June, he was unexpectedly freed. Mr. Vázquez, 52, was among the 75 dissidents, writers and librarians sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years in April 2003. But his torment isn't over. "I came out of prison completely crazy!" he yelled from his fifth-floor apartment in Alamar, east of Havana. "Tell them I'm crazy!" Back in Alamar, Mr. Vázquez is fighting, too. But it's taken a toll, his wife said. "Manuel thinks that God is speaking through him," she said. Over the last year, Ms. Huerga was among the many wives of jailed dissidents and journalists who risked their own freedom in denouncing prison conditions, staging silent marches and demanding that their loved ones' be released. Now that her husband is free, she doesn't want to get involved in the political opposition. "I'm relieved Manuel was released. But I'm also afraid because in Cuba nothing is certain." (The Dallas Morning News, 19/8/04)

August 21: Water supplies to some areas of Havana have not been restored and residents get their daily water ration from government tanker trucks. In some areas the fire department helps supply water to homes, hospitals and even the Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, among other institutions. According to the most recent figures, 12,869 people remain affected by the water shortage and 2,741 are still in shelters because they cannot return to homes that must be rebuilt. Thousands of residents in Old Havana still depend on water tankers, where a large number of companies, businesses, hotels and restaurants for foreign tourists are located. ( EFE, Europa Press, Granma , 21/8/04)

August 21: Cuban expertise in the field of clinical hypnosis was confirmed recently when a top psychologist received the prestigious HipnoCaribe 2004 prize in an international event in Puerto Rico. The award was the one of two Alberto Cobián Mena received at the First Congress of Therapeutic Hypnosis held in Puerto Rico. The judges praised Cobián for his contribution to the development of the specialty in both medical practice and academic research. Doctor Cobián is the current President of the Caribbean Association of Therapeutic Hypnosis that has offices in Puerto Rico, Colombia, Panama, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. (Radio Habana Cuba, 21/8/04)

August 21: Several slogans stating "down with Fidel", "down with the dictatorship", "Liberty for the Cuban People", appeared in the neighborhood of San Francisco de Paula, in San Miguel del Padrón, declared Frank García Llerena, a member of the National Directive of the Democratic Party November 30 "Frank País". According to the information, the slogans appeared written on walls of stores and bus stops where many citizens gather on a daily basis. Officers of the State Security removed them by painting the walls with yellow paint. (Puente Informativo, 21/8/04)

August 21: People in Havana began an intensive effort to clear away the devastation left behind by Hurricane Charley a week ago. Organization of the cleanup work has been centered in labor associations of townships most affected by the hurricane, which summoned workers for a day of clearing and cleaning green areas and surrounding streets. Vice President Carlos Lage called upon Cubans to make sure every street is picked up in the hardest-hit neighborhoods - Playa, Marianao, Boyeros, Arroyo Naranjo, Plaza de la Revolucion and La Lisa. The notice circulated by local media said the cleanup is to be conducted by neighborhood organizations that should concentrate on picking up garbage, cleaning streets and eliminating possible mosquito breeding grounds, among other tasks. (Radio Habana Cuba, EFE, 21/8/04)

August 22: Cuban shot-putter Yumileidi Cumbá became the first gold medal winner for Cuba in the Olympic Games, after Russian Irina Korzhanenko was positive in a doping control. Cumbá, who had won the silver after several fouls with a throw of 19.59m, will receive the gold medal. (Prensa Latina, 23/8/04)

August 22: María del Carmen Jerez Guevara, a 35-year-old nurse who worked for 14 years at a youth center in Manzanillo, was fired due to orders given by Cuban State Security in that locality. "She was fired because she visits and worries about the health of one of her cousins, political prisoner Julio Antonio Valdés Guevara, and also because she publicly protested when the government sentenced Julio to 20 years in prison back in April 2003”, Cruz Delia Aguilar Mora, Valdés Guevara’s wife, stated to reporters. According to the information provided, Abel Guevara, captain of the political police in Manzanillo, convinced the director of the youth center to fire María del Carmen. (Puente Informativo, 22/8/04)

August 23: Political prisoner Cándido Terry Carbonell was released from jail, after a two-year sentence for shouting “Down with Fidel” in front of tourists and passers by in Revolution Square, Havana. (Cubanet, 23/8/04)

August 23: Berta Antunez, sister of political prisoner, Jorge Luis García Perez, “Antunez”, declared herself on a hunger strike for an indefinite period of time. The decision, as Ms. Antunez said is due to the situation that her brother is going through in the provincial prison in Ariza, Cienfuegos. “My family suffered an act of aggression during our visit last July 5 th, when the guards beat my brother in front of my own eyes,” Berta Antúnez confirmed. The Antunez family had been told that within a month, the authorities would answer her letter, which is yet to happen, Berta Antunez has declared herself on a hunger strike to demand a definitive answer to all the arbitrary situations that her brother suffers in prison. (Netfor Cuba, 24/8/04)

August 23: Nivaldo Díaz Castellón, a Varela Project activist and member of Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (MCL) in Pinar del Río, was forced by State Security agents to get inside a police car where he was victim of harassment for two hours. After confiscating MCL papers from him -- including a letter to the municipal delegation of the National Assembly denouncing arbitrary procedures by local police, and receiving threats by the agents, Díaz Castellón was released. (Grupo Decoro, 23/8/04)

August 25: The Cuban Catholic church is collecting and distributing humanitarian assistance for the thousands of victims of hurricane "Charley". The head of the Cuban Bishops Conference (COCC), José Félix Pérez, said that after the hurricane the Church launched a relief effort to help provide food, medicine and clothing to the victims. (EFE, 25/8/04)

August 26: A score of dissidents and wives of jailed government opponents gathered in a Havana apartment for a day of fasting to demand a pardon for all political prisoners. Most of those observing the day of fasting were the wives of the 75 dissidents sentenced in 2003 to up to 28 years in prison for allegedly conspiring with the United States, undermining the principles of the revolution and infringing on the freedom of the state. The protest was headed by Dolia Leal Francisco, whose husband, dissident Nelson Aguiar Ramirez, chairman of the outlawed Cuban Orthodox Party, is serving a 13-year prison sentence in the eastern province of Guantanamo. "We're asking for the immediate release of all Cuban political prisoners, which number more than 300, not only the 'Group of 75,' and we're also denouncing the conditions in which they are being held," Leal said. (EFE, 26/8/04)

August 26: In the town of Placetas, in the province of Villa Clara, 335 kilometers (208 miles) east of Havana, dissident Bertha Antunez has been on hunger strike since August 23 to demand that authorities transfer her brother, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, to a jail in his native province, one of her relatives told the press. Garcia Perez was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1993 after being found guilty of "enemy propaganda, attempted sabotage and possession of illegal arms and explosives," his brother-in-law, Alejandro Garcia, said. Several dissident groups have gone on hunger strike in the past weeks to demand that the communist regime headed by Fidel Castro release the island's political prisoners. (EFE, 26/8/04)

August 26: Blanca Reyes, wife of Cuban dissident and poet Raul Rivero, criticized the "harassment" of her husband in prison where he is completing a 20-year sentence. Reyes informed the press that her husband called her and explained that on August 20 he had a "verbally violent incident" involving prison security personnel. "They threatened to put him in solitary confinement for five days, but then decided to revoke his marital visiting privileges," stated Reyes. "They are tormenting Raul, even though he is smart and tries to take it very calmly, but they are trying to humiliate Raul, they are trying to break him, " she said. Rivero is being held in the Ciego de Avila prison some 450 km from Havana. According to his wife, Rivero is entitled to one visit by his spouse every five months, and the visit authorized for next September 11 has been cancelled. (EFE, 26/8/04)

August 29: Cuba ranked 11 at the close of the 2004 Olympics in Athens. It was the only Latin American country ranking among the top 15 countries in Athens, followed by Brazil ranking 18. Cuba obtained nine gold medals, five in boxing, one free style wrestling, one women´s shot put, one women´s javelin and of course, the gold in baseball. The Caribbean nation also secured 7 silver and 11 bronze medals for a total of 27. (Prensa Latina, 29/8/04)

August 30: Blanca Reyes, the wife of Cuban imprisoned dissident and writer Raúl Rivero, addressed an “open letter” to intellectuals throughout the world denouncing Rivero’s worsening of jail conditions. According to Reyes, Rivero is suffering from constant psychological tortures and humiliations” by the prison guards of a facility in Ciego de Avila –460 kilometers away from Havana—where the writer has being held since April 2003. (ABC, 30/8/04)

August 31: Bertha Antúnez -- the sister of political prisoner Jorge Luis Antúnez-- was taken to a hospital in Placetas, Las Villas province, after losing consciousness. Over 20 persons, among relatives and human rights activists, have joined a hunger strike that Bertha initiated on August 27, in demand of better treatment and better conditions for her brother in jail. Among the people who have joined the hunger strike are Antúnez’ relatives, Alejandro García Sardiñas and Damaris García -- Bertha’s husband and daughter --, Mirta Asela Pernet Reyes -- her mother --, Damaysi Jiménez Pernet, Iris Pérez Aguilera and Mario Pérez Aguilera -- her cousins. Also joining the hunger strike were human rights activists, Taimara Agramonte Grau, José Antonio Pérez González, Francisco Becerra Vázquez, Blas Fortún Martínez, Pedro Regalado Cárdenas Silverio, Amado Ruiz Moreno, Xiomara Martín Jiménez, María Elvira Ruíz García, Guillermo Pérez Yera, Marta Beatriz Roque, Marilín Díaz Fernández and Lázaro González Arana. The Directorio Democrático Cubano, based in Miami, made a call to Cuban authorities to listen to Bertha Antúnez requests for better treatment for her brother in jail. Dissident Martha Beatriz Roque who was recently released from jail, after having been sentenced in April 2003, joined the hunger strike. (Europa Press, 31/8/04)