Reporters Without Borders today condemned a wave of arrests of dissidents yesterday as a peaceful protest in support of political prisoners was being prepared in front of the Justice Ministry in the Havana.
Among the around 30 people arrested and still being held are four journalists: free-lance Idania Yanes Contreras, Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, correspondent for the websites Payolibre and Nueva Prensa Cubana and Radio Martí, Yoel Espinosa Medrano and Félix Reyes Gutiérrez, of the independent news agency Cubanacán Press, founded by Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, laureate of Reporters Without Borders 2006 Cyber-Freedoms prize.
“Even though some of the arrested dissidents were immediately released, this crackdown is in part a reminder of the ‘black spring’ of March 2003,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “While the eyes of the world were turned on the start of the war in Iraq, the Cuban government ordered a round-up of 90 dissidents, 75 of whom are still behind bars, including 20 journalists.”
“Is the regime in Havana this time trying to rival that of Rangoon, where a military clampdown has continued for several days and is holding the attention of the international community?” the organisation speculated.
“The arrests of these dissidents recalls the crying fact that 250 people are languishing in Cuba’s prisons for political reasons. We call for their immediate release and at the very least early news about Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez and Yoel Espinosa Medrano.”
On 27 September 2007, Marta Beatriz Roque, president of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society (a dissident group), accompanied by six other people tried to hand over a letter to the justice minister Maria Esther Reus in the Vedado district of the capital, in connection with the plight of political prisoners in Cuba. The dissident leader said that protestors would stay outside the ministry building until they got a response. State Security (political) police then arrested Marta Beatriz Roque and her companions and bundled them into a bus to return them to their homes. Laura Pollán Toledo, wife of Hector Maseda Gutiérrez, co-founder of the agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro imprisoned since March 2003, was among those arrested.
Estimates vary widely on the number of people arrested, running from 20 to 30 people. According to Agence France-Presse, there were also arrests of people who had decided to join the demonstration in front of the justice ministry, both in Havana and in the central province of Santa Clara, where Cubanacán Press is based. The Miami-based website Payolibre, released the names of 23 people still being detained, including the journalists Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez and Yoel Espinosa Medrano.
Guerra Pérez, 29, was arrested in similar circumstances, on 13 July 2005, just before a dissident demonstration. He was imprisoned for 19 months without trial, regularly beaten by his guards and several times needed treatent in hospital. He was sentenced, on 27 February 2007 (see press release) to 22 months in prison for “”disturbing public order” and released on 9 May this year (see press release).
