Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. February 25, 2009.
Cuba, with a population of approximately 11.2 million, is a totalitarian state formally led by President Raul Castro. In 2006 General Castro was granted provisional control of the government by his brother, Fidel Castro, who officially resigned as president on February 19. On February 24, the National Assembly unanimously elected Raul Castro to succeed his brother as chief of state, president, and commander in chief of the Armed Forces. Fidel Castro remains officially the first secretary of the Communist Party (CP). In the January 20 elections for the National Assembly, which were neither free nor fair, the CP won as much as 98 percent of the vote and 606 of the 614 seats in the National Assembly. The Ministry of the Interior exercises control over police, the internal security forces, and the prison system.
The government continued to deny its citizens their basic human rights and committed numerous, serious abuses. The government denied citizens the right to change their government. At year's end there were at least 205 political prisoners and detainees. As many as 5,000 citizens served sentences for "dangerousness," without being charged with any specific crime. The following human rights problems were reported: beatings and abuse of detainees and prisoners, including human rights activists, carried out with impunity; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, including denial of medical care; harassment, beatings, and threats against political opponents by government-recruited mobs, police, and State Security officials; arbitrary arrest and detention of human rights advocates and members of independent professional organizations; denial of fair trial; and interference with privacy, including pervasive monitoring of private communications. There were also severe limitations on freedom of speech and press; denial of peaceful assembly and association; restrictions on freedom of movement, including selective denial of exit permits to citizens and the forcible removal of persons from Havana to their hometowns; restrictions on freedom of religion; and refusal to recognize domestic human rights groups or permit them to function legally. Discrimination against persons of African descent, domestic violence, underage prostitution, trafficking in persons, and severe restrictions on worker rights, including the right to form independent unions, were also problems.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:
a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
The government or its agents were not known to have committed any politically motivated killings.
b. Disappearance
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
The law prohibits abusive treatment of detainees and prisoners; however, members of the security forces sometimes beat and otherwise abused human rights and prodemocracy advocates, detainees, and prisoners, and did so with impunity.
Although physical torture was rare, authorities beat, harassed, and made death threats against dissidents, both inside and outside of prison. Many were detained repeatedly, interrogated, and threatened with physical harm to themselves and their families. Some detainees and prisoners endured physical abuse, sometimes by other inmates with the acquiescence of guards, or long periods in isolation or punishment cells. Political prisoners and detainees who refused to wear the prison uniform or take part in "reeducation" activities were targeted for mistreatment.
Political prisoner Tomas Ramos Rodriguez, released on June 16 after 18 years' imprisonment, stated that in the Combinado de Este prison in Havana Province, prison authorities beat prisoners with truncheons on a near-daily basis with impunity. Families of prisoners continued to report that prison staff sometimes goaded inmates with promises of rewards to beat a political prisoner.
The government continued to subject persons who disagreed with it to "acts of repudiation," although these incidents, especially those that occurred in front of the homes of dissidents, continued to show a marked decline. The government targeted dissenters by directing militants from the CP, the Union of Communist Youth (UJC), Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs), the Federation of Cuban Women, the Association of Veterans of the Cuban Revolution, and other groups and individuals to stage public protests against the dissidents, usually in front of their homes. Participants shouted insults and obscenities. Mobs sometimes damaged the victim's home or property and occasionally assaulted the victim or his relatives. Leading dissidents, such as Martha Beatriz Roque, continued to receive death threats. Although the government characterized acts of repudiation as spontaneous, undercover police and State Security agents were often present and clearly directed the activities, for example by threatening neighbors with job loss if they did not participate. The government did not detain any participants in acts of repudiation, even those who physically attacked the victim, nor did police respond to victims' complaints.
In February Rodolfo Martinez Vigoa, a physician, complained to the Ministry of Public Health about the condition of the local health clinic in Artemisa as well as the salaries of its employees. On March 7, approximately 300 persons arrived at Martinez's house and shouted insults, calling him a traitor and a counterrevolutionary. The government later stripped Martinez of his medical license.
In some cases local authorities put psychological pressure on dissidents. On July 4, prodemocracy activist Antonio Chelanes Cruz was taken in handcuffs from his home, although he offered no resistance. The local police chief reportedly stated that Chelanes Cruz would be prosecuted for "dangerousness" unless he ceased his activities for the opposition group New Republic. On July 11, the local police chief brought Chelanes Cruz before a group of neighbors and stated that Chelanes Cruz was opposed to society, lazy, and a counterrevolutionary and warned that he could be imprisoned at any time.
Children of dissidents were routinely refused entry into universities and reported that teacher and school administrators insulted them and labeled them as counterrevolutionaries in front of classmates.
Prison and Detention Center Conditions
Prison conditions continued to be harsh and life threatening. Conditions at approximately 200 detention facilities and jails were even worse, with cells that were routinely vermin infested and lacked water, sanitation facilities, adequate ventilation, and lighting. Many prisoners spent months in isolation in narrow, dark punishment cells. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) stated that inmates reported widespread overcrowding, especially in maximum security prisons. Many cells were damp and subject to temperature extremes, provoking serious respiratory problems and arthritis. Authorities also often denied medical treatment, family visitation, adequate nutrition, exposure to natural light, pay for prisoners’ work, and the right to petition the prison director.
Health conditions and hygiene at prisons were very poor. Many prisoners, such as Tomas Ramos Rodriguez, released in June after serving 17 years, said that cell floors had standing pools of water contaminated with sewage. There were several reports that toilets were essentially wooden platforms above an open sewer, with no process for treating the waste. Family members reported widespread serious disease and illnesses among political prisoners, for which the prison staff sometimes withheld treatment. Digestive disorders, dengue fever, and outbreaks of skin diseases caused by contaminated water were frequent. The family of political prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya stated that a doctor diagnosed him as suffering from a variety of serious medical conditions due to malnutrition. According to the local NGO Council of Rapporteurs of Human Rights in Cuba (CRDHC), in March and April several inmates in Quivican prison died in a tuberculosis outbreak. A former female political prisoner stated that in the Provincial Women's Prison in Havana, tuberculosis outbreaks were common and that prisoners with tuberculosis were put in the same infirmary as pregnant inmates. The CRDHC maintained that the prison authorities did little to prevent or treat the disease. The CRDHC documented during the year several cases of prisoners who died of heart attacks and acute asthma attacks after pleading unsuccessfully for assistance for several hours. Frequently prisoners, including Tomas Ramos Rodriguez, extracted their own teeth because authorities refused to arrange dental visits.
The CRDHC reported several suicides of prisoners every month in prisons and detention centers, but the government did not reveal information on this subject.
The government placed some mentally healthy prisoners in cells with mentally disturbed inmates.
Some inmates resorted to self-mutilation, often to seek a transfer to a prison closer to family or to protest prison conditions. On July 18, Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, one of the journalists arrested in 2003 and held in Holguin Provincial Prison, began a protest hunger strike by sewing his mouth shut. On July 31, prison authorities subdued him and removed the stitches.
Prison food often was inedible, and food from outside was essential to meet nutritional needs. Prisoners' typical diet consisted of undercooked rice that was often infested with worms or a mash made of soybeans and a very small amount of meat. Prisoners' relatives ostensibly were allowed to bring them 30 to 40 pounds of food at two to three-month intervals, but families reported that prison guards often prevented food deliveries. Typically, water for drinking, bathing, and flushing the hole in the cell floor that served as the common toilet was contaminated, for example, with visible parasites.
Overcrowding was common. Typically, 40 inmates shared quarters meant for 30, so that many inmates had to sleep on bare concrete floors. Ana Rosa Ledea Rios, imprisoned in 2003 and released in 2007, stated in September that for more than 18 months she was confined with two other inmates to a cell approximately six feet in length and four feet wide, in which they ate all of their meals.
Sexual assault occurred at prisons. Reports suggested that there was a higher rate of incidence of sexual assault at female prisons. Former political prisoners speculated that the disparity in the rate of sexual assaults was due to assaults by other female prisoners as well as male guards, and because the prison community typically did not tolerate forced participation in male homosexual activity. When such assaults occurred in either male or female prison facilities, guards frequently looked the other way and failed to punish perpetrators.
The government did not release information on the treatment of minors at either youth or adult prisons or detention centers.
Families of prisoners stated that other than some novels, they were unable to deliver reading material to the inmates. Prison officials regularly denied prisoners other rights, such as the right to correspondence.
The government sometimes denied political detainees and prisoners pastoral visits. However, detainees stated that authorities increasingly honored written requests to see a Catholic priest.
Many political prisoners were serving sentences in prisons located long distances from their home provinces, increasing their and their families' sense of isolation. However, during the year the government transferred seven of the political prisoners arrested in 2003 to facilities in their home provinces. In July prison authorities granted Luis Milan Fernandez, one of the 75 dissidents arrested in 2003, a weekend pass to visit his family. In September authorities allowed Oscar Biscet, another of the dissidents incarcerated in 2003, a four-hour escorted bereavement visit.
The government did not permit independent monitoring of prison conditions by international or national human rights groups. The government did not permit access to political detainees by international humanitarian organizations. The government has not granted prison visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, or Human Rights Watch since 1988.
d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention
Although prohibited by law, the government effectively and frequently used arbitrary arrest and detention to harass opponents.
Role of the Police and Security Apparatus
The Ministry of the Interior exercises control over police, the internal security forces, and the prison system. The National Revolutionary Police (PNR) is the primary law enforcement organization and generally was effective in investigating common crimes. Specialized units of the Ministry of the Interior's State Security service are responsible for monitoring, infiltrating, and suppressing opposition political groups. The PNR played a supporting role by carrying out house searches and provided interrogation facilities for State Security agents.
Members of the security forces acted with impunity in committing numerous, serious human rights abuses. While the PNR ethics code and Ministry of the Interior regulations ban police brutality, the government did not announce any investigations into police misconduct during the year. Corruption was a problem. Human rights groups stated that because so much economic activity was illegal, and so many citizens worked in the informal economy to survive, policemen frequently used the threat of arrest to coerce bribes and kickbacks. Former political prisoner and prodemocracy activist Francisco Chaviano documented several cases in which the police assisted a prostitute in renting a room in a private home and then evicted the residents and confiscated the property, accusing the residents of being involved in "trafficking of persons."
CP officials and leaders of neighborhood CDR branches lack formal law enforcement powers but wielded considerable authority and often used it to mobilize action against anyone criticizing the government or its leaders.
Arrest and Detention
The law places few formal limits on police discretion to stop or interrogate citizens. Police street surveillance was heavy, and police frequently and randomly stopped cars and pedestrians for questioning. There are no formal protections under the law to protect citizens from these investigative stops, and there were many reports that such stops increased during the year.
Police have broad detention powers, which they may exercise without a warrant. Under the law, police can detain without a warrant not only persons caught in the act but also someone merely accused of a crime against state security. Police by law cannot conduct a search without a warrant, but both the CCDHRN and human rights lawyer Rene Gomez Manzano reported that police always had available a supply of signed and stamped blank warrants that they merely filled out on the spot.
The criminal process begins with the filing of a criminal complaint by either a citizen or a police officer. By law, after an arrest police have 24 hours to present the complaint to a police official called an instructor. The instructor then has 72 hours to investigate and prepare a report for the prosecutor. The prosecutor then has an additional 72 hours to decide whether to proceed with criminal charges. By law, after this 144-hour period, the person under arrest either should be charged or released, but in practice officials often delayed the process by repeatedly calling for further investigation, a practice that is permitted under the law. After criminal charges are filed, a defense attorney has the right to review the charges against the accused. The law provides for access to a lawyer within seven days, and sources stated that this normally was honored in practice. However, a prosecutor can demand a summary trial, in which case an attorney often meets the client minutes before the hearing starts.
Bail was available, although typically not in cases involving alleged antigovernment activity. Time in detention before trial counted toward time served if convicted. The law provides for detainees' prompt access to a lawyer; a public defender is appointed five days after the notification of a trial date to the defendant by the court if the defendant fails to name one. However, other provisions of the law permit delays in access to a lawyer while a case remains under investigation. The government denied prisoners and detainees prompt access to family members.
The authorities routinely engaged in arbitrary arrest and detention of human rights advocates. In most cases, dissidents were held for several hours and then released without charges. The CCDHRN confirmed 1,500 such detentions during the year but suspected there were many more. There were 325 similar detentions in 2007. On January 30, the government-banned Assembly to Promote Civil Society reported that seven dissidents, including Jorge Luis Garcia Perez (Antunez) and his wife Iris Perez, were beaten and arrested in Santa Clara while trying to pay homage to the hero of Cuban independence, Jose Marti, as a form of protest against the government. On April 21, 10 members of the Damas de Blanco ("Ladies in White") gathered in a central Havana square to protest the continued imprisonment of family members who were among a large group arrested in 2003. They were met by a caravan of police officials, apprehended by force, placed onto buses, and removed from the area. On July 29, the political police and rapid response brigade prevented 20 dissidents from participating in a peaceful march in Holguin designed to be an act of solidarity with political prisoners of conscience. Angel Luis Tellez Aguilera, the vice president of the United Commission on Human Rights, was arrested, detained for several hours, and released without charges. On July 12, State Security detained dissident Francisco Chaviano and at least five other activists in Havana who were planning to attend a public demonstration.
The law sets six months as the maximum period that a defendant can remain in prison before the case is brought to trial; however, if the prosecutor decides after charges are filed that the care requires more investigation, the case can be returned to the instructor. While the law outlines guidelines, it does not prescribe a time frame for the instructor to return the case to the prosecutor, and persons have been held without trial for several years after their cases had been returned to the instructor. At year's end dissident Vladimir Alejo Miranda had been in jail since February 2007 without charges being filed, and Ihosvani Suris de la Torre and Maximo Pradera Valdez had both been imprisoned without charges since 2001.
Dissident Jorge Luis Garcia Perez (Antunez) was under virtual house arrest in his hometown of Placetas. Antunez was confined to his home at least once a month for several hours at a time, and detained in Havana and forcibly returned to Placentas throughout the year. After each detention, he was released without charges.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
While the constitution provides for independent courts, it explicitly subordinates them to the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP) and the Council of State. The ANPP and its lower-level counterparts choose all judges. Thus, in practice the CP controlled the courts.
Civilian courts existed at the municipal, provincial, and appellate levels. Panels composed of professionally certified and lay judges presided over them. Military tribunals, which were governed by a special law, assumed jurisdiction for certain "counterrevolutionary" cases. The military tribunals tried civilians if a member of the military, police, or any uniformed member of the government was involved with civilians in a crime. In these tribunals there was a right to appeal and access to counsel, and the charges were made known to the defendant.
Trial Procedures
The courts restricted the right to a defense and often failed to observe due process rights nominally available to defendants. While most trials ostensibly were public, trials were closed when there were alleged violations of state security. Almost all cases were tried in less than one day; the law does not provide for jury trials. The law provides the accused with the right to an attorney and, except in cases involving state security, the right to consult an attorney in a timely manner. However, in (now relatively rare) cases where the prosecutor asked for a summary judgment, many defendants either had no defense attorney or met an attorney only minutes before the start of their trial. This was particularly true in cases involving charges of "dangerousness." In November, in the wake of shortages after two devastating hurricanes, authorities arrested hundreds of individuals for activities such as unauthorized street vending and possession of construction materials. The judiciary sentenced several defendants to jail terms of one to four years in summary trials, many of which were held in police stations and not in courts of law. The government's control over members of the lawyers' collectives compromised their ability to represent clients, especially those accused of state security crimes.
Criteria for presenting evidence were arbitrary and discriminatory. A defendant's right to present witnesses was observed arbitrarily. Defense attorneys were given access to the police dossier and the prosecutor's written accusation--sometimes at, or minutes before--the trial. The law provides that all legally recognized civil liberties may be denied to anyone who "actively opposes the decision of the people to build socialism." Government officials routinely invoked this authority to deny due process to persons detained on purported state security grounds. In cases involving "state security," defense attorneys were not allowed access to the police files and the investigation by the prosecutor's office. Because of these constraints and because most trials last less than eight hours, defense attorneys often did not have time to arrange for testimony by defense experts.
The penal code includes the concept of "potential dangerousness," defined as the "special proclivity of a person to commit crimes, demonstrated by his conduct in manifest contradiction of socialist norms." No proof is required for a conviction for this offense. The CCDHRN estimated that as many as 5,000 citizens, including 1,000 women, were in jail for this offense. The CCDHRN listed six new cases of political prisoners convicted of "potential dangerousness" during the year. However, authorities applied this law most frequently to young persons without political connections who refused to report to work centers because of the low salaries, to young women who engaged in prostitution, and to persons who repeatedly returned to Havana after being sent back to their home provinces.
On August 25, Gorki Aguila Corrasco, a musician known for ridiculing the communist system and especially the Castro brothers, was arrested. On August 29, after a two-hour trial, he was convicted of public disorder, fined 600 pesos ($28), and released. The more serious charge of "dangerousness" against him was dismissed, but he was ordered to pay his fine in 300 weekly installments of 2 pesos (less than 10 cents), effectively placing him in parole status for more than five years.
Prosecutors may introduce testimony from a CDR member about the revolutionary background of a defendant, which may contribute to a longer or shorter sentence. The law presumes defendants innocent until proven guilty, but authorities often ignored this presumption in practice. The law recognizes the right of appeal in municipal courts but limits it in provincial courts to cases involving lengthy prison terms or the death penalty. Appeals in capital cases are automatic. The Council of State must affirm capital punishment. On April 29, General Raul Castro commuted an unspecified number of death penalty cases to life imprisonment. The CCDHRN stated that this decision affected 30 prisoners.
