Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07HAVANA81
2007-01-26 20:21:00
CONFIDENTIAL
US Interests Section Havana
Cable title:  

CUBAN DISSIDENTS LIVE UNDER THREAT OF DETENTION

Tags:  PHUM KDEM SOCI CU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO0303
RR RUEHAG RUEHROV
DE RUEHUB #0081/01 0262021
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 262021Z JAN 07
FM USINT HAVANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1200
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS
RUESDM/JTLO MIAMI FL
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 000081 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2017
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: CUBAN DISSIDENTS LIVE UNDER THREAT OF DETENTION


HAVANA 00000081 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 000081

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2017
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: CUBAN DISSIDENTS LIVE UNDER THREAT OF DETENTION


HAVANA 00000081 001.2 OF 002


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


1. (C) Summary: The Cuban Government continues to use
political detentions, and to a lesser extent violence, to
punish, intimidate and silence opponents of the regime. On
January 22, a youth activist was taken into custody and two
other dissidents recovered from street attacks. Meanwhile,
the regime transferred four prominent political prisoners
from regular cells to the hospital wings of prisons. Another
dissident described two years of hellish prison time he
served after "disrespecting the head of state." End Summary.



2. (C) Human rights activist Wilson Cabrera Reina, a member
of the Marti Youth Coalition and the Independent Teachers'
College, was taken into police custody on January 22,
ostensibly for residing illegally in Havana. Cabrera, an
eastern Cuba native who has lived in Havana for five years
with his wife, was an active participant in an opposition
youth forum on November 24. On January 22, after police
showed up at his home and took him to a police station, he
launched a total hunger strike - not even liquids. Friends
who appealed at the station for his release were told by
officials of the National Revolutionary Police that it was a
State Security matter. (Note: The regime is expected to
deport Cabrera to eastern Cuba in the near future. End Note.)
Meanwhile, two other dissidents reported being attacked in
the street, in separate incidents, by suspected State
Security agents using martial arts techniques. Ismael Omar
Castellano and Jorge Quitusci both received head injuries
serious enough to require medical attention. Quitusci's
attack came seconds after he left the home of dissident
Roberto de Miranda.

SICK PRISONERS TRANSFERRED
--------------


3. (C) The Cuban Government is transferring at least four
prominent political prisoners from their prison cells to
prison hospitals. Some are among the 75 peaceful activists
jailed in the "Black Spring" 2003 crackdown. Julio Cesar
Galvez, an independent journalist suffering from pneumonia
and showing signs of psychological strain, was transferred
January 22 from a regular cell at Havana's Combinado del Este
prison to CDE's hospital wing. The same day, Pedro Pablo
Alvarez, whose leg problems have rendered him largely unable
to walk, was transferred from a CDE cell to the Carlos Finlay
military hospital in Havana. At around the same time, Jose
Ubaldo Izquierdo, an independent journalist who has
hepatitis, was taken to the CDE hospital from a regular cell
at Guanajay prison near the capital. Nelson Aguiar Ramirez,
of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society, is in poor health
following three hernia operations. He was scheduled to be
transferred from a CDE cell to CDE's hospital on January 26.

UNSHACKLED
--------------


4. (C) Antonio Vladimiro Rosello Gomez, a 41-year-old
carpenter and unabashed dissident, has been out of prison for
nearly eight months, but still carries the scars, physical
and mental, of two horrific years behind bars. Rosello, of
the November 30 Democratic Party, served two years for
"disrespecting the head of state." On July 30, 2004, he was
protesting an eviction and yelled, "Long Live Human Rights,
and Down with the Fidel Castro Dictatorship!" Police took
him into custody immediately. After being held without
charge for one year, he was convicted of the disrespect
charge in a three-hour trial. Rosello, whose ankles remain
scarred from leg irons, spent time at the Villa Marista
detention center and three Havana prisons: Valle Grande, CDE
and 1580. His clavicle was broken at Villa Marista by a
guard who didn't appreciate Rosello's refusal to eat. The
bone was never set, and remains malformed. His head features
a number of unresolved injuries resulting from blunt trauma.
His face also tells a story. Two front teeth, one up and one
down, were knocked out in separate attacks by guards, the
worst at Valle Grande. Rosello vows to keep up his dissident
activities "until Cuba is free."

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


5. (C) Multiple transfers of political prisoners are
relatively rare. The death of former political prisoner
Miguel Valdes Tamayo on January 10 brought negative press
attention to the GOC. It is possible that the regime is
moving to ensure that some of the sicker political prisoners
receive necessary medical attention before they die and

HAVANA 00000081 002.2 OF 002


create a PR problem for the regime.
WILLIAMS