Solidarity with Cuba

Since Fidel Castro took power, civil and political rights are being violated in Cuba. People that does not agree with the national ideology and the dictator’s policy are roughly repressed. Presently, there are in Cuba more that 340 political prisoners. The most drastic and massive attack against the Cuban opposition is known as “The Black Spring”.

“The Black Spring” commenced on 18^th march 2003. On that day, seventy five independent journalists, human right defenders, dissidents and trade union activists were detained and condemned in quick trials. The government accused them of participation in a conspiracy organized by the Director of the US Interest Section in Cuba. They were accused of being “mercenaries” and the government promised that sound penalties would be applied against “actions taken in cooperation with the enemy”. Trials were carried out from the 3d to the 7^th of April 2003. Unjust sentences ranging from 6 to 30 years in jail were applied in these rapid processes. Some of them were later on released due to their poor health conditions. Still, there are 71 people in jail, serving in very hard conditions, they are tortured, and contact with their families is denied.

Most of the dissidents were sentenced according to Article 91 of the penal code, or to Law 88, or to both of them.

Article 91 of the Cuban penal code foresees a sentence from 10 to 20 years in prison or a death penalty for a person that “commits an action that jeopardize the independence of the country, or its territorial integrity, in the benefit of a foreign country”

The Black Spring did not stopped the dissident’s detention process. For example, only on the 22d of July 2005, 30 people that were demonstrating in front of the French Embassy in Havana were detained and each day more people are detained.....

Amnesty International is actively denunciating the present situation in Cuba. Amnesty calls for an immediate release of all prisoners of conscience jailed by the regime. They also monitor the human right’s situation on the island.

Amnesty International considers each prisoner, that has been imprisoned with a political meaning, including political motivation of the prisoner, his actions, or motives, for which the authorities decided to imprison him. Amnesty International considers “political” all human relations related to “politics”, that is civil mechanisms related to the organization of the public order. We are talking about principles, organization and way to govern or lead public issues, also related to language, ethnicity, sexuality or religion believes, social status and influences, as well as other factors. This term is related also to the relation of the government with the society, and the relations within the family. Therefore, all activities directed to power change are consider as a political issue.

In many countries, political trials are conducted violating standards of international law. In other countries, political prisoners are being arrested for many years, some times for decades, without any trial, or even without any contact with the tribunals. Amnesty International requires that objective trials are conducted within a reasonable period of time, or the prisoner shall be released. The term “political prisoner” regards not only prisoners of conscience but also people who committed criminal acts (e.g. unauthorized introduction in private areas, destruction of property, etc), but Amnesty requires immediate and unconditional release only of prisoners of conscience.

The use of the term “political prisoner” does not imply that Amnesty International gives any special status to the prisoner, nor support or agree with his political position. Amnesty does not present any position related to the use of weapons in political conflicts.

We herewith present some examples regarding the term „political prisoner”, typically used by Amnesty International in some cases:

Real or supposed membership of a political armed group, accused of „treason to the nation” or „inspiration to revolt”

Person accused of a common criminal act e.g participation in a trade union, rural organization, demonstrations.

Women accused of murdering her husband, who beat her, if the trial is carried out according to discriminative laws related to mandatory defense.

Person accused due to a common criminal action, eg like a murder or assault, carried out for political reasons, or tax avoidance for ideological reasons.

Many governments stands that there are no political prisoners in their countries, that people are imprisoned according to the penal code. Nevertheless, Amnesty International define similar cases as “political”, “political process” and “imprisoned for political reasons”. That does not mean that Amnesty International is against such imprisonment, unless there is a prisoner of conscience.

Amnesty International not only takes care of individual prisoners but also request governments to eliminate procedures that allow prisoners to be isolated for a long term for political reasons without legal protection.1)

The exact amount of political prisoners imprisoned in the world is not known. They are imprisoned by their governments, with a different political and social systems, sometimes by armed political groups. We know that for each know name, there are many others - unknown.

There are many outstanding personalities known by their public actions. Many of them are artists, lawyers, politicians, and trade union activists, who are brave enough to challenge the official ideology. Most of them are common people, children, imprisoned not because of their political activity, but because of their own way of living.

Some of the prisoners of conscience are fighting against the system of their countries, other were imprisoned regardless of the fact that they acted within the existing law. We herewith present some of the reasons of imprisonment:

Participation in political activities, without using violence, eg, participation in social works at local level
Participation to ethnic groups and requiring autonomy.
Regular participation in religious ceremonies not accepted by the government.
Participation in demonstrations, trade unions, strikes.
Falsely accused of committing crime, when the only action was to critic the government.
Writing alarming reports on the press related to human rights violations in their own country.
Refuse to serve military service due to its own believes.
Refuse to speak the official language.
To live in an specific village.
To be a member of the family of an dissident.
To be a women, if it is imprisoned just due to the fact of being a women (eg. By the talibans)
Real or imaginary sexual identification or relationship with persons of ther same sex.

Amnesty International request the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, people that are imprisoned due to its identity, and not because they had committed a crime. According to the international law, the government is not allowed to imprison them.

Amnesty International use a detailed and specific definition of „prisoner of conscience”. In order to define that a person is a prisoner of conscience, it is necessary to analyze the facts precisely. The final decision is made by the International Secretariat which confirm the information from different sources, and assess its compatibility with the existing definition. In case there is any doubt, the issue can be assessed also by international voluntary workers grouped in the Mandate Committee

List of 71 conscience prisoners and their age, jailed in Cuba and being aided by Amnesty International:

1. Nelson Alberto Aguiar Ramírez, 59
2. Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos, 57
3. Raúl Arencibia Fajardo, 41
4. Pedro Argüelles Morán, 56
5. Víctor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, 53
6. Mijail Barzaga Lugo, 36
7. Oscar Elías Biscet González, 43
8. Marcelo Cano Rodríguez, 38
9. Francisco Chaviano González, 52
10. Rafael Corrales Alonso, 36
11. Eduardo Díaz Fleitas, 51
12. Antonio Ramón Díaz Sánchez, 41
13. Alfredo Rodolfo Domínguez Batista, 43
14. Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, 55
15. Efrén Fernández Fernández, 54
16. Juan Adolfo Fernández Sainz, 56
17. José Daniel Ferrer García, 33
18. Luis Enrique Ferrer García, 30
19. Próspero Gaínza Agüero, 47
20. Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, 39
21. Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez, 59
22. José Luis García Paneque, 39
23. Ricardo Severino González Alfonso, 53
24. Diosdado González Marrero, 42
25. Léster González Pentón, 26
26. Alejandro González Raga, 46
27. Jorge Luis González Tanquero, 33
28. Leonel Grave de Peralta Almenares, 27
29. Iván Hernández Carrillo, 33
30. Normando Hernández González, 35
31. Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, 38
32. Regis Iglesias Ramírez, 34
33. José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernández, 37
34. Rolando Jiménez Posada, 33
35. Reinaldo Miguel Labrada Pena, 41
36. Librado Ricardo Linares García, 43
37. Virgilio Marante Guelmes,
38. Héctor Fernando Maseda Gutiérrez, 62
39. José Miguel Martínez Hernández, 40
40. Mario Enrique Mayo Hernández, 40
41. Luis Milán Fernández, 35
42. Rafael Millet Leyva, 34
43. Nelson Moliné Espino, 40
44. Ángel Juan Moya Acosta, 40
45. Jesús Miguel Mustafá Felipe, 59
46. Félix Navarro Rodríguez, 50
47. Pablo Pacheco Avila, 34
48. Héctor Palacios Ruiz, 63
49. Arturo Pérez de Alejo Rodríguez, 53
50. Omar Pernet Hernández, 57
51. Horacio Julio Pina Borrego, 37
52. Fabio Prieto Llorente, 38
53. Alfredo Manuel Pulido López, 43
54. José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, 46
55. Arnaldo Ramos Lauzerique, 63
56. Ricardo Ramos Pereira, 33
57. Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodríguez, 47
58. Alexis Rodríguez Fernández, 34
59. Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina, 38
60. Omar Rodríguez Saludes, 39
61. Omar Moisés Ruiz Hernández, 57
62. Claro Sánchez Altarriba, 51
63. José Enrique Santana Carreira, 29
64. Ariel Sigler Amaya, 40
65. Guido Sigler Amaya, 51
66. Ricardo Silva Gual, 31
67. Fidel Suárez Cruz, 34
68. Manuel Ubals González, 35
69. Héctor Raúl Valle Hernández, 36
70. Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta, 56
71. Orlando Zapata Tamayo, 36