CUBA HUMAN RIGHTS ROUND-UP MARCH 8 - MAR. 14

C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 000246 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR WHA/CCA E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/13/2017 TAGS: CU PGOV PHUM PINR PREL SUBJECT: CUBA HUMAN RIGHTS ROUND-UP MARCH 8 - MAR. 14 REF: HAVANA 207 Classified By: A/COM: J. L. Williams : For reasons 1.4 b/d ¶1. (C) JOURNALISTS BLOCKED FROM ATTENDING USINT VIDEOCONFERENCE: The Public Diplomacy section of USINT has been hosting a course for nearly 40 independent journalists through videoconferences with Florida International University. The course is designed to build build professional skills and has no political content. The course builds professional skills and has no political content. However, Cuban state security forces prevented several invitees from attending the course on March 10. Julio Beltran Iglesias and Richard Roselio were detained for several hours. and state security officials prevented Aini Martin Valero and Ivan Sanudo Pupo from leaving their home to attend the event. An official threatened Oscar Mario Gonzalez that the GOC would not allow a visit from his daughter if he attended the course, and placed someone to watch his house from the early morning to the afternoon of March 10. Alvaro Yero Felipe was also not permitted to leave his house. ¶2. (U) ANTUNEZ ON HUNGER STRIKE: On March 10 activist Jorge Luis Garcia Perez ("Antunez") went on hunger strike to demand that municipal authorities in Placetas provide adequate housing to his sister, Caridad Garcia Perez, and her 12 year old daughter. Caridad Garcia and her child are living in a precarious structure that is in at imminent danger of collapse. ¶3. (U) WIFE OF POLITICAL PRISONER STRIP SEARCHED: On March 12 officials of the Guanajay prison ordered Teresita Castellanos Garcia, wife of political prisoner Adalberto Ramos Monteagudo, to remove her clothing as she arrived for a visit with her husband. Reportedly the officials were searching for banned literature and hidden notes. Castellanos plans to protest to the Council of State next week. ¶4. (U) POLITICAL PRISONER ALLOWED TO ATTEND FUNERAL OF DAUGHTER: On March 13 prison authorities allowed independent journalist, Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, to stay with his mother in Guantanamo for one day so that he could attend the funeral of his daughter, Llanet Herrera, who together with her mother and half-sister were killed in a traffic accident. Herrera is incarcerated at Prison Kilometer 7 in Holguin and is serving a 20 year sentence imposed during a massive crackdown in 2003. Such temporary releases to attend funerals of close family members are common within Cuba's prison system. PARMLY