CUBA HUMAN RIGHTS ROUNDUP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HAVANA 011957

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/08/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM PREL KWMN SOCI CU
SUBJECT: CUBA HUMAN RIGHTS ROUNDUP


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Classified By: COM Michael Parmly for Reason 1.4(d).


1. (C) Summary: With Internet advocate Guillermo Farinas up
to Day 128 of his hunger strike, 38 supporters have announced
a sympathy fast. Oswaldo Paya of Varela Project fame is
summarizing his "Program for All Cubans" in a pamphlet. Paya
is also collecting evidence on bogus pro-democracy activists
who he says frequently end up reaching the United States as
refugees. Some "Ladies in White" were ordered to strip naked
before or after visiting their jailed relatives. Angel Pablo
Polanco of the Pro-Change Committee says his group is
identifying local-government leaders, to prevent them from
some day playing a role in a democratic Cuban Government.
Independent journalist Armando Betancourt is detained and
accused of public disorder for trying to report on an
attempted eviction in Camaguey. In Matanzas, State Security
broke up a 14-person meeting of the opposition Marti
Revolutionary Party and detained all participants for 72
hours. Activists say the GOC is covering up the true death
toll from May's torrential rains and flooding. End Summary.

SYMPATHY FAST FOR FARINAS
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2. (C) Thirty-eight supporters of hunger-striking dissident
Guillermo Farinas are taking part in a sympathy fast. Among
the participants are members of the Martha Abreu Women's
Movement, including Farinas' common-law wife, Noelia Pedraza
Jimenez. Another sympathy faster is Juan Carlos Gonzalez
Leiva, a well-known blind dissident from Ciego de Avila. Ten
of the 38 intend to fast for 24 hours or less. Farinas, now
up to Day 128 of his hunger strike for Internet access, is
being sustained with IV fluids at a Santa Clara hospital. On
June 3 or 4, he underwent a third operation to remove
coagulated blood from one of his lungs. Leading activist
Martha Beatriz Roque of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society
continues to call attention to Farinas' case. On June 5, she
told us that a number of Assembly members are among the 38
carrying out the sympathy fast. Roque said Farinas' mother
Alicia Hernandez, with whom she speaks regularly, is
cooperating with State Security. Roque warned that Hernandez
would be pressing the USG to provide refuge to Farinas.
(Note: Hernandez has not yet made any such appeal. End Note.)

PAYA FOCUSES ON BOGUS ACTIVISTS
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3. (C) Paya told us June 1 that he and his colleagues are
summarizing into a 16-page pamphlet the "Program for All
Cubans," their plan for a peaceful transition to democracy,
including a draft Constitution. Separately, he said, his
network is collecting evidence on bogus activists who apply
as, and frequently qualify for, refugees to the U.S. Paya
said some such "activists" use the name of Paya's Christian
Liberation Movement (MCL) in crafting fake letters, false
police citations and other materials to bolster refugee
cases. Paya said he suspects considerable State Security
involvement, noting that such activity could generate
profits, create bad blood among activists and perhaps help
the GOC place agents in Miami. "We are close to identifying
some unscrupulous people," he added. (Note: Veteran activist
Roberto de Miranda told COM June 6 that "in Cienfuegos,
there's a big business churning out fake prison-sentence
letters, bogus police citations" and other materials to
support migration cases. End Note.)

HARASSMENT OF MCL MEMBERS CONTINUES
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4. (C) Paya, like Roque, has not been targeted for recent,
intense harassment, but a number of his colleagues have. In
late May in the southern city of Palma Soriano, Communist
militants held an "act of repudiation" aimed at Catalina
Pina, a MCL member who facilitates phone calls to political
prisoners. Another Paya-affiliated activist, Jorge
Aguilera, was warned by a Bayamo court on May 31 that he may
be charged with "dangerousness," unless he finds a job.
Aguilera was fired after his dissident activities came to
light.

"LADIES IN WHITE" ORDERED TO DISROBE
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5. (C) Clara Lourdes Prieto Llorente, a member of the "Ladies
in White" and the sister of political prisoner Fabio Prieto
Llorente, told us June 5 that she has created a new
opposition political group, the Pines Autonomous Party.
Based in Nueva Gerona, on the Isle of Youth (formerly known
as the Isle of Pines),the party has seven members and hopes

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to attract at least 33 more, she said. Clara, an economist
fired from her job, said Fabio, one of the 75 peaceful
activists jailed in March 2003, is doing time at El Guayabo
prison on the same island. She said he is not mistreated by
guards or other prisoners, although he is grappling with
emphysema, gastric woes and other health issues. Clara and a
relative were strip-searched at El Guayabo on March 29,
following a two-hour meeting with Fabio. Clara said the
search was intended to humiliate. A similar incident
occurred on May 18 at Kilo 5.5 prison in Pinar del Rio. The
wife of 75er Normando Hernandez, Yarai Reyes, who is also a
Lady in White, was ordered to completely disrobe and perform
deep knee bends before visiting her husband. Reyes refused.

"A VERY DANGEROUS MAN"
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6. (C) Clara also said her cousin, who lives in the
countryside outside of Nueva Gerona, met in January with a
local youth who had been recruited for military service and
was serving as a prison guard at El Guayabo. The young man,
aged 17, did not know of the cousin's connection to the
dissident. He informed her that his supervisors had just
told him that "a very dangerous man" had come to the prison
and that he and the other recruits should not get close to
him. The man's name was Fabio Prieto Llorente.

GROUP IDENTIFYING MUNICIPALITY LEADERS
--------------


7. (C) Angel Pablo Polanco, head of the dissident Pro-Change
Committee, which advocates replacing the current Constitution
with a modified version of the 1940 Constitution, told us
June 5 that his network is working on identifying key
individuals in power in all of Havana's 15 municipalities.
"We're identifying the chief of each municipality's Poder
Popular, education office and public health office," Polanco
said. "We can't allow people who take part in repressive
activities to hold any position in a new, free, democratic
Cuban Government." Among the changes that Polanco would like
to see made to the 1940 Constitution is the scrapping of its
ban on capital punishment. He said the death penalty is
merited for "any Cuban official found, in a fair court of
law, to have taken part in the more than 500 executions that
have occurred since the revolution." In Polanco's vision of
a peaceful transition, a provisional government would consist
of eight key leaders - four chosen from on-island
pro-democracy groups, and four from the Cuban exile
community. These eight would in turn select a provisional
president. Polanco envisions only two realistic contenders:
Martha Beatriz Roque, and Dr. Oscar Biscet of the Lawton
Human Rights Foundation.

JOURNALIST DETAINED
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8. (C) Independent journalist Armando Betancourt is
reportedly being held at a police station in Camaguey,
central Cuba, after he tried to report on a May 23 attempted
eviction of several families in the city's La Guernica
neighborhood. The families were living in unauthorized
houses they had built on land previously used as a trash
dump. A large group of police officers was unable to evict
the families because of the presence of numerous protestors,
some armed with machetes. However, the police took
Betancourt into detention and accused him of public disorder.
(Note: The Norwegian Charge d'Affaires noted his country's
keen interest in the case during a meeting with the COM. End
note.)

DISSIDENT GATHERING RAIDED
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9. (C) Jorge Luis Cruz Arencibia, president of the opposition
Marti Revolutionary Party, told us June 6 that State Security
officers in the Matanzas city of Jaguey Grande raided his
home on May 20, shortly after the start of a dissident
gathering. Cruz said all 14 participants were taken into
custody and held for 72 hours before being released.

GOC SAID TO BE COVERING UP DEATH TOLL FROM FLOODS
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10. (C) The GOC statistic on the number of deaths caused by
May's torrential rains and flooding is far lower than the
true number, according to freed political prisoner Edel Jose
Garcia Diaz and dissident doctor Darsi Ferrer. Garcia, a
75er freed in 2004, told us June 5 that 20 or 21 people are
believed to have died, rather than the GOC's figure of seven.

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Garcia explained that when the Quibu river overflowed, "A
number of houses were simply dragged away." Ferrer told us
June 4 that the GOC is covering up the true death toll to
prevent any popular expressions of discontent over the GOC's
flood response. Ferrer also expressed outrage over the
treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferers, an issue he
and his colleagues have been researching. Ferrer said
foreigners with MS who seek medical treatment in Cuba receive
injections of Interferon B, at a cost of thousands of
dollars. However, he said the more than 3,000 Cubans with MS
are given the less-expensive and far-less-effective
Interferon A, with the result that "their quality of life
suffers."
PARMLY