ROADTRIP BY CANADIAN POLOFF YIELDS HUMAN RIGHTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 009846 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/08/2016 TAGS: PHUM PREL KDEM SOCI CU SUBJECT: ROADTRIP BY CANADIAN POLOFF YIELDS HUMAN RIGHTS INSIGHTS HAVANA 00009846 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: COM Michael Parmly for Reason 1.4(d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Canadian Poloff Ram Kamineni, who covers human rights, briefed us May 5 on his recent weeklong road-trip to the cities of Camaguey, Las Tunas, Manicaragua, Puerto Padre, Santa Clara and Santiago. Kamineni met dozens of pro-democracy activists and "Ladies in White" (relatives of political prisoners). He says hunger-striking dissident Guillermo Farinas is predicting his own death by the end of July. Santiago was a virtual ghost town, with a heavy police presence and many nightspots closed, apparently following drug raids. In Puerto Padre, Kamineni says, the "Ladies in White" play a central role in the dissident community, while in Las Tunas, one embattled "Lady" is keeping her kids home for their own protection. Camaguey felt more open and free than other Cuban cities, but Kamineni says he "couldn't wait" to get back to Havana. With few exceptions, USINT officers are forbidden to travel outside Havana's city limits. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Canadian Third Secretary Ram Kamineni shared with us May 5 his experiences following a week-long road trip to the cities of Camaguey, Santa Clara, Manicaragua, Puerto Padre, Las Tunas and Santiago. Kamineni said he justified the trip by attending a Canadian event in Camaguey at the start of the week, then drove southeast. In Santa Clara, in the central province of Villa Clara, Kamineni arrived at the hospital where Guillermo Farinas, the dissident journalist, has since January 31 waged a hunger strike for Internet access for all Cubans. The hospital staff told him they were busy and suggested he return another day. Kamineni then traveled to the home of Farinas' mother, who called Farinas and informed him of the situation. Farinas then prodded the staff to let Kamineni in. The journalist, looking not so much "emaciated" as "thin," appeared strong in spirit and conviction, the Canadian said. Farinas predicted he would not survive past July, but Kamineni doubted that the dissident was close to death, adding that "the IV can probably keep him going for a long time." He called Farinas a "rallying point" for the dissident community in Villa Clara. "LADIES IN WHITE" PLAY KEY ROLE -------------- ¶3. (C) In Puerto Padre, Las Tunas province, Kamineni found that the "Ladies in White" and their supporters play a unifying role in the dissident community. He met with a dozen Ladies and other activists during a visit to the Santa Ana church. One Lady shed light on the circumstances in which she was prevented from traveling to Havana in mid-March to mark the third anniversary of the Black Spring crackdown, in which 75 peaceful dissidents were jailed. She succeeded in boarding a bus toward Havana, but en route, the bus was surrounded by police cars. The Lady then "got her own little motorcade back to Puerto Padre," Kamineni said. In the city of Las Tunas, meanwhile, a solitary Lady, Gisela Verdecia Garcia, is under intense pressure for her activities. The wife of Reinaldo Labrada, a member of Oswaldo Paya's Christian Liberation Movement, lives in "a fortress," according to Kamineni. He said Verdecia "keeps her kids hidden at home all the time" because several people have mentioned her dissident activities and then asked, 'You love your children, right?" SANTIAGO A "GHOST TOWN" -------------- ¶4. (C) Santiago de Cuba, the Canadian said, felt more like a ghost town than southern Cuba's biggest city. Kamineni was there on a Friday night and found "police on every street corner," which he speculated had more to do with crime than anything else. In the city center, he said, the number of nightclubs had dropped from 50 or so to around 10. "I heard that the authorities are cracking down on drugs by closing any establishment where drugs are found during a raid." STATUS QUO IN MANICARAGUA -------------- ¶5. (C) Kamineni also visited the Villa Clara city of Manicaragua, where he met with around a dozen pro-democracy activists who reiterated what we had heard about local transport facilities, restaurants and other venues being placed off-limits to dissidents. Kamineni said that, regrettably, he was unable to confirm or refute these assertions. In Camaguey, he was impressed with the considerable freedom the city's residents have, he said. "At night, the whole city center opens up and people seem fairly HAVANA 00009846 002.2 OF 002 free; there's a good vibe." Nevertheless, he said, "I couldn't wait to get back to Havana." COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (C) These vignettes reinforce our sense that, as run-down as Havana has become, poverty and crumbling infrastructure are even worse in the interior. Additionally, the different strands of the dissident movement that sometimes compete for attention and leadership in Havana, tend to work more cooperatively against the regime in the provinces. PARMLY