Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06HAVANA16439
2006-08-18 17:30:00
CONFIDENTIAL
US Interests Section Havana
Cable title:  

NO RELIEF FOR CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS, OR THEIR

Tags:  PHUM KDEM SOCI CU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO4722
RR RUEHAG
DE RUEHUB #6439/01 2301730
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 181730Z AUG 06
FM USINT HAVANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3709
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES
RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 016439 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/18/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: NO RELIEF FOR CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS, OR THEIR
FAMILIES

REF: HAVANA 15749

HAVANA 00016439 001.2 OF 002


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

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 016439

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/18/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: NO RELIEF FOR CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS, OR THEIR
FAMILIES

REF: HAVANA 15749

HAVANA 00016439 001.2 OF 002


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


1. (C) Summary: Cuba's political prisoners continue to suffer
from appalling and unhealthy prison conditions, while many of
their family members face vindictive and even terrifying acts
organized by the Cuban Government. On August 16 and 17,
USINT spoke on the phone with the spouses or parents of ten
of the 75 peaceful activists jailed in the March 2003
crackdown. Most were convicted of violating Law 88:
Protection of National Independence and the Economy of Cuba.
Nine are still in prison and one is out on conditional
parole. The relatives paint a distressing picture, not only
of the prisoners' treatment behind bars but of their own
struggle to get by as family members of "mercenaries" and
"counter-revolutionaries." Some of these relatives are
subjected to "acts of repudiation." Of the 10 families we
contacted in Bayamo, Camaguey, Ciego de Avila, Havana, Las
Tunas, Manicaragua, Manzanillo, Santa Clara and Santiago, six
reported harassment of family members. All of the prisoners
are dealing with health problems, some severe. End Summary.

HEALTH WOES
--------------


2. (C) The list of ailments of the ten prisoners is
disconcertingly long: dengue fever, kidney failure,
intestinal disorder, bleeding colon, malnutrition, ulcer,
inflamed prostate, pulmonary distress, hemorrhoids,
hypertension, knee issues, renal problems, osteoporosis,
kidney cyst, emphysema, chronic gastritis, anemia, glaucoma,
digestive problems. On average, the incarcerated members of
the families we spoke with each had two or three serious
medical conditions, and in many cases prison staffs are
failing to provide treatment or medicine. In some cases,
this failure is deliberate. Adolfo Fernandez Sainz, an
independent journalist and opposition party member serving 15
years at Canaleta prison in Ciego de Avila, requires regular
access to sunshine for a medical condition. But according to
his wife Julia Nunez, a guard routinely denies Fernandez this
right, without explanation. None of the common criminals is

denied their time outside, she says. At the notorious
Boniato prison in Santiago, Luis Milan Fernandez, a doctor
who is serving a 13-year sentence, is recovering from dengue
fever contracted on or about August 9, along with several
other prisoners. (Note: At least 20 Cubans have died from
the latest dengue outbreak. End Note.)

ARSON THREAT
--------------


3. (C) Since December 8, political prisoner Jose Garcia
Paneque of the outlawed Democratic Solidarity party has lived
at the infirmary of Bayamo's Los Mangos prison. Paneque,
serving a 24-year sentence, is battling an intestinal
disorder and other health problems, but his relatives may be
having a tougher time. As reported reftel, his wife Yamile
Llanes was home with 11 youngsters between the ages of 7 and
25 on August 3 when around 100 people staged a particularly
intense "act of repudiation" in front of their house in Las
Tunas. Llanes told us that a number of the children started
crying when a member of the mob shouted, "Let's set the house
on fire and burn the worms!" Others yelled, "We'll defend
the Revolution with all means necessary!" Paneque's
seven-year-old daughter remains traumatized and asks to move
away from the neighborhood, her mother says. In Manzanillo,
an act of repudiation was held August 13 against Lady in
White Cruz Delia Mora, wife of Julio Antonio Valdez Guevara.
Valdez, an independent librarian, is out on conditional
parole and was at a hospital during the act, receiving
dialysis. Thirty to 40 participants, none of them neighbors,
gathered to snarl "worm!" and "counter-revolutionary!" at
Mora.

HOUNDED OUT OF WORKPLACE
--------------


4. (C) For Rebecca Rodriguez, the wife of dissident dentist
Alfredo Pulido Lopez, a 2003 act of repudiation marked the
beginning of the end of her work as a physical therapist.
Around 100 workers at her clinic staged the event to denounce
Pulido and, by extension, Rodriguez. Despite the harassment,
Rodriguez held on for two more years, continuing to work
until she could no longer stand the abuse meted out to "the
wife of a mercenary." She quit, and swears she'll never go
back "even if I have to starve." Thanks to support from a
foreign NGO and her father, she is not in danger of starving.

HAVANA 00016439 002.2 OF 002


But Rodriguez, a Lady in White, is feeling the heat from
State Security - and the cold shoulder from neighbors.
"State Security knows everything I do," including a May 2005
visit to USINT. Neighbors keep her at arm's length, she
added. "I am practically alone here." Pulido, for his part,
is serving 14 years at Kilo 7 prison in Camaguey. An
independent journalist, Varela Project organizer and member
of Oswaldo Paya's Christian Liberation Movement, Pulido has
respiratory problems and avoids the prison yard out of fear
of being attacked by violent inmates.

HOLDING HIS TONGUE
--------------


5. (C) Political prisoner Nelson Moline Espino isn't having
trouble with other inmates, but he's choosing his words to
the guards carefully these days. His father told us that in
May, Moline, 41, complained to guards vociferously over the
beating of a thin, elderly inmate, and consequently spent the
next three weeks in a punishment cell, "without any
communication." Moline, serving 20 years at Kilo 5 prison in
Pinar del Rio, launched a hunger strike, but it didn't help
him leave the punishment cell any sooner. Says his father:
"At other prisons, he was allowed to make a weekly phone call
home, but not at Kilo 5." The father says the family has not
faced any harassment, but that his son is "in bad shape," and
living "in bad conditions."

MANICARAGUA: DISSIDENT HELL
--------------


6. (C) Moraima Leon, wife of political prisoner Arturo Perez
de Alejo, has the rotten luck to live in the Villa Clara city
of Manicaragua, infamous for denying dissidents access to
cafeterias, bars, bus stations and sports facilities. "I
don't get out much," she says, her world reduced to
occasional trips to church or one of the few shops that will
serve her. She avoids possible run-ins with critics, usually
senior citizens with comments like, "Your worm husband got
what he deserved." A Lady in White, she is one of only two
women on the city's 21-dissident blacklist. She tries to
leave the city a few times each year, to meet up with other
Ladies in Havana, but usually is blocked by Communist
militants. Her husband, doing 20 years at Guamajar prison in
Santa Clara, isn't faring any better. His 12 cellmates are
all common criminals. The water is undrinkable. Often there
is no water for flushing. Perez, of the Escambray
Independent Human Rights Organization, suffers from an ulcer,
pulmonary issues, an inflamed prostate and hemorrhoids.

LAYING LOW
--------------


7. (C) Osleivy Garcia, the wife of political prisoner Pablo
Pacheco Avila in Ciego de Avila, is a rarity: a doctor who is
married to a dissident but has been allowed to keep her job.
She states, in a tone lacking conviction, that she is not
being harassed, and makes clear she's trying to avoid the
wrath of Communist militants. She concedes that Pacheco,
whom she visited August 15 at Moron prison, is in bad shape.
"He's sick," with hypertension, renal problems and a bad
knee. "His spirits are down." Pacheco, an independent
journalist, bunks with ten common criminals. Fellow inmates
were taking his belongings, "but he's worked that out." Now
he's just trying to avoid upsetting the guards, she says.

COMMENT
--------------


8. (C) Relatives of Cuban political prisoners can be forgiven
for occasionally exaggerating the medical woes of their loved
ones. For most inmates serving time for political crimes,
the only early ticket out is conditional parole on health
grounds. For this reason, family members might refer to a
bad cough as a "respiratory ailment" and a paper cut as a
"gash." That said, Castro's prisons - let alone the more
frightening "detention centers" such as Villa Marista and 100
y Aldabo -- are enough to make a healthy man sick in a matter
of weeks. The food is largely inedible, hygiene is
inadequate and medical services sorely lacking. Since the
official, temporary handover of power to Raul Castro, the
armed forces chief and thus the country's top jailer, we have
seen no change in the horrendous and inhumane treatment of
political prisoners, and no let-up in the collective
victimization of their family members.
PARMLY