CUBA HUMAN RIGHTS ROUND-UP DEC. 14-28

C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 001190 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR WHA/CCA E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/27/2017 TAGS: CU PGOV PHUM PINR PREL SUBJECT: CUBA HUMAN RIGHTS ROUND-UP DEC. 14-28 Classified By: COM: M.E. Parmly : For reasons 1.4 b/d ¶1. (C) ACTIVISTS DISTRIBUTE HUNDREDS OF COPIES OF HUMAN RIGHTS DECLARATION: On 21 December on a major thoroughfare in central Havana noted dissidents Martha Beatriz Roque (MBR),Jorge Luis Garcia Perez ("Antunez") and Felix Antonio Bonne Carcasses distributed over 400 copies of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights to passers-by. MBR reports that the people in the streets gladly accepted the copies of the declaration. MBR stated that although she and her colleagues engaged in this activity for over an hour the police and the security forces did not in any way attempt to harass them. ¶2. (C) STATE SECURITY TRIES TO LURE BACK INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST: Independent journalist Guillermo "Coco" Farinas reported that on 19 December state security officers took him to their offices in the city of Villa Clara for a three hour interview. Farinas stated that the entire conversation was videotaped. He stated that they blamed him for an exhibit mounted in the home of Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) during the week of 6 December. The exhibit featured blow ups of pictures of Cuban prisons taken from Google Earth with the photographs of political prisoners incarcerated in each facility. Farinas stated that he took responsibility for the exhibit even though that this was not the case to avoid trouble for Sanchez. Farinas also stated that the officers then unsuccessfully tried to bait him into talking badly about several opposition figures. The officers questioned him about his upcoming book that will be published in March. The book was sent through the Dutch Embassy to the Pan American Foundation for Development. Farinas does not know how state security obtained a copy of the book. The officers argued with Farinas that he was too harsh on Fidel and Raul Castro in the book. This led to the officers asking Farinas what the government could do to win back his support. Farinas said that he told the officials that he had seen too many abuses by the government and that now he was fully committed to peaceful change. ¶3. (C) LARGE NUMBER OF DETENTIONS: Elizardo Sanchez of CCDHR reports that since the end of November 2007 his organization documented over 100 detentions, a very large number for a single month. Many were picked up in connection with activities marking International Human Rights Day on December 10. Most of those detained were released within a few hours or days. This continues an apparent trend of the GOC to use short detentions to disrupt participation in political activity, instead of high profile political trials followed by lengthy prison sentences. PARMLY