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CUBA:
J concerned about imprisoned journalists'
welfare 683v32
Committee
to Protect Journalists.
New York, November 12, 2003-The Committee
to Protect Journalists (J) is extremely
concerned about the lack of information
regarding the situation of imprisoned Cuban
journalists Mario Enrique Mayo Hernndez,
Adolfo Fernndez Sanz, and
Ivn Hernndez Carrillo, who
began a hunger strike on October 18.
A week after a failed attempt by a group
of family to visit the journalists
and dissidents who had gone on a hunger
strike in the Holgun Provincial
Prison in eastern Cuba, the strikers have
been dispersed and transferred to other
prisons.
According to J sources, the group of
family traveled to Holgun
Province on November 6 to obtain information
about the journalists and dissidents and
tried to see them. After prison authorities
refused to meet the group's demands, the
group camped outside the prison. The next
day, the prison director, a captain who
identified himself by the name Israel, received
the group. Israel told them that as long
as the journalists and dissidents committed
"indisciplines," they would not
be allowed any with their families.
When Mayo Hernndez's wife, Maydeln
Guerra lvarez, asked about her husband,
Israel said that he had received orders
to transfer Mayo Hernndez to the
Mar Verde prison, in neighboring Santiago
de Cuba Province. The group decided to leave
the prison on November 7 with the promise
from Israel that the prisoners would be
allowed to call home, but so far the families
have not received any phone calls from the
prisoners.
After the group of wives and mothers left
the prison, some dissidents who had ed
the hunger strike were moved to other prisons,
sources told J.
Fernndez Sanz has been
transferred to another unit within the same
prison, according to his wife, Julia Nez
Pacheco. On November 11, Guerra lvarez
traveled to the Mar Verde prison but was
not allowed to see her husband. Because
the prison authorities have refused to allow
with the strikers, their families
have been unable to confirm if they halted
the hunger strike or what their health conditions
are.
Mayo Hernndez and Fernndez
Sanz had ed four jailed dissidents
in a hunger strike that began on October
18 to protest the treatment of Hernndez
Carrillo, who was placed in a punishment
cell after complaining about feeling sick.
J has also learned that journalist Manuel
Vzquez Portal, who is jailed in
Aguadores Prison, in Santiago de Cuba, began
a hunger strike yesterday. According to
Yolanda Huerga, Vzquez Portal's
wife, her husband had started yet another
hunger strike to the Holgun
journalists and dissidents. Vzquez
Portal is being honored this year with one
of J's International Press Freedom Awards.
During the last four months, several imprisoned
Cuban journalists have gone on hunger strikes.
In August, Mayo Hernndez, Fernndez
Sanz, and Hernndez Carrillo
held a 13-day hunger strike to demand better
food and adequate medical attention. That
same month Vzquez Portal and journalist
Normando Hernndez Gonzlez,
who at the time were jailed in Boniato Prison,
in Santiago de Cuba, went on a hunger strike
that lasted one week. In retaliation, Vzquez
Portal was subsequently transferred to Aguadores
Prison while Hernndez Gonzlez
was sent to a prison in the western province
of Pinar del Ro.
The imprisoned journalists, who are being
held in maximum-security facilities and
are handcuffed any time they leave their
cells, have denounced unsanitary prison
conditions, inadequate medical attention,
solitary confinement, and lack of access
to the press and television. They have also
complained about receiving foul-smelling
and rotten food.
Twenty-eight independent Cuban journalists
were detained in a massive government crackdown
in March. Their one-day trials were held
in early April behind closed doors. Some
journalists were tried under Article 91
of the Penal Code, which imposes lengthy
prison sentences or death for those who
act against "the independence or the
territorial integrity of the State."
Other journalists were prosecuted for violating
Law 88 for the Protection of Cuba's National
Independence and Economy, which imposes
up to 20 years in prison for anyone who
commits acts "aimed at subverting the
internal order of the Nation and destroying
its political, economic, and social system."
On April 7, courts across the island announced
prison sentences for the journalists ranging
from 14 to 27 years. They remained imprisoned
in jails istered by the State Security
Department until April 24, when most were
sent to prisons located hundreds of miles
from their homes. In June, the People's
Supreme Tribunal, Cuba's highest court,
dismissed the appeals for annulment (recursos
de casacin) filed in April by the
journalists and upheld their convictions.
For more information about press freedom
conditions in Cuba, visit <www.j.org>.
J is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit
organization that works to safeguard press
freedom around the world.
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