Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06HAVANA23515
2006-11-15 21:21:00
CONFIDENTIAL
US Interests Section Havana
Cable title:  

DISSIDENT DETAINED AFTER FAILING TO ANSWER SURVEY

Tags:  PHUM KDEM SOCI CU 
pdf how-to read a cable
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 023515 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/15/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: DISSIDENT DETAINED AFTER FAILING TO ANSWER SURVEY


HAVANA 00023515 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Buddy Williams for Reason 1.4(d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 023515

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/15/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: DISSIDENT DETAINED AFTER FAILING TO ANSWER SURVEY


HAVANA 00023515 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Buddy Williams for Reason 1.4(d).


1. (C) Summary: A recent incident involving Cuban dissident
Niurka Brito Rivas illustrates how the Cuban regime sometimes
attempts to incriminate its opponents in illegal activity.
Brito spent three days in jail in October, without charges,
after she failed to fill out a survey sent by her daughter's
school that asked her to state her political affiliation.
Identification with any political organization other than the
Communist Party would likely prompt the GOC to jail Brito for
"dangerousness," a statute carrying a sentence of up to four
years. Brito's Catch-22 - fail to respond to the parental
"survey" and spend a few days in jail, or answer it honestly
and get convicted of dangerousness - shows the creative
genius of the Cuban Government. End Summary.


2. (C) Niurka Brito Rivas, a former Communist Youth League
member and part of the establishment, saw life take a
dramatic turn in early 2005, a year after she became head of
the Metropolitan Dairy Products Enterprise. Brito discovered
massive corruption, including the siphoning of gas for
deliveries and the under-filling of one-kilogram cans of
powdered milk -- pilfering that she said raked in 1,200 USD a
month for top executives. She reported the corruption to the
Communist Party (CP) and was fired three days later. In July
2005, Brito briefed foreign reporters on her experience and
infuriated the Cuban Government, whose enforcers pushed her
down a flight of stairs, slashed her car tires repeatedly,
denied her two children school lunches and warned Brito that
she could lose custody. A State Security official made clear
that this was payback for "showing the press the errors of
the revolution."

FROM BAD TO WORSE
--------------


3. (C) The whistleblower's woes increased in January 2006
when her husband died following what she calls a botched
colon-cancer operation. In May, unable to find work and
desperate for money, Brito swapped her well-located,
three-bedroom apartment for a ramshackle studio and, under
the table, 11,000 USD, money now keeping her household
afloat. In mid-October, Brito's 10-year-old daughter,
Camila, returned from school with a survey that asked her
guardian to identify, among other things, the guardian's
political affiliation and "economic situation." Brito
visited the school and asked administrators if any other
parent was being surveyed, and they said no. Brito decided
not to respond to the survey, knowing she could get in
trouble for either identifying a political organization other
than the CP, or stating the true source of her family's money.

SUMMONED TO POLICE STATION
--------------


4. (C) On October 17, Brito was summoned to a police station
in Havana's Chinatown and, without explanation, jailed for
three days. She spent part of that time alone and part with
one other cellmate, a woman apparently held on drug charges.
On October 19, a police officer removed Brito from the cell
and told her, "That big mouth of yours is going to be the
death of you." Brito was fined a token amount for
"disrespecting authority" and allowed to head home.

ONGOING HARASSMENT
--------------


5. (C) For Brito, the incident represents just another form
of harassment in an ongoing GOC campaign to make her life
miserable for damaging the regime's image. The fine is
nothing, she said, compared with the hassle of being summoned
every month to appear before the local police chief "along
with all the prostitutes." The GOC maintains an open dossier
on Brito for "dangerousness," and at each monthly meeting, a
member of the CP branch in Brito's neighborhood, and an
official of Child Protective Services, inform the police
chief about Brito's conduct. Any reported infraction would
likely lead to Brito being prosecuted, convicted and jailed
for dangerousness. Losing custody of her children could be
another unfortunate consequence for Brito.

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


6. (C) Dissidents like Brito pay the price, suffering
indignities large and small, for differing with the regime.
Brito's Catch-22 - fill out the parental "survey" honestly
and get convicted of "dangerousness," or reject the survey
and spend a few days in jail - shows not only the creative

HAVANA 00023515 002.2 OF 002


genius of the GOC but the tightrope Cuban dissidents have to
walk. Brito is lucky to have spent only three days in jail;
according to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and
National Reconciliation, at least 2,000 women are currently
behind bars in Cuba for "dangerousness," in the absence of
any crime.
WILLIAMS