AFL-CIO's Letter to Fidel Castro

March 25, 2003

His Excellency Fidel Castro Ruz
President
Republic of Cuba
Plaza de la Revolución
Havana, Cuba
E-mail: f_castro@cuba.gov.cu
Fax: 011-537-333-085

Dear Mr. President:

We were informed that over twenty labor activists and independent journalists were arrested on the afternoon of March 18. Mr. Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban Parliament, labeled these people as "leaders of the counter revolutionary movement," during his appearance on the television program "Round Table." A list of some of the labor activists is appended to this letter.

State security agents also ransacked Pedro Pablo Alvarez's home for eight hours, confiscating his personal documents as well as CUTC office equipment, (computer, two fax machines, typewriters, radios and union files).

The arrest of these activists is a deliberate violation of their fundamental labor rights as guaranteed by ILO Conventions 87 – Freedom of Association, and 89 – Right to Organize, both of which Cuba ratified in 1952.

The AFL-CIO, along with its affiliated unions representing 13 million workers in the United States, demands the immediate release of these labor activists and an end to all attacks against independent groups. We will continue to stand by the Cuban workers and we are urging the entire international labor community to do the same.

Sincerely,

John J. Sweeney
President
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations

Among the labor activists detained are:

Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos, General Secretary of the Consejo Unitario de Trabajadores Cubanos (CUTC);

Carmelo Diaz Fernandez, CUTC executive board member and deputy of the Centro Nacional de Capacitacion Sindical y Laboral;

Ivan Hernandez Carrillo, executive board member of the Confederacion Obrera Nacional Independiente de Cuba (CONIC);

Activists threatened, under surveillance and house arrest but not detained:

Nelson Molinet Espino, General Secretary of the Central de Trabajadores Democráticos (CTDC), forced to suspend his hunger strike;

Victor Manuel Dominguez Garcia, director of the Centro Nacional de Capacitacion Sindical y Laboral (CNCSL);

Aleida Godinez Soler, CONIC representative; and

Alicia Zamorra Labrada, director of Lux Infopress

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