Posts Tagged ‘Cuba’
September 6th, 2011
The
Cuban government this weekend
revoked the press credentials of journalist Mauricio Vicent, correspondent for Spanish newspaper
El País. Cuban authorities said that Vicent, who has been a reporter on the island for twenty years, had portrayed a “biased and negative image” of Cuba. Since 2007, the Cuban government has prohibited reporting by foreign correspondents from the
Chicago Tribune, the
BBC and Mexico’s
El Universal.
April 6th, 2011
Cuba has
accused a Reuters journalist of collaborating with a US diplomat thought to be a CIA agent. The allegation was made by Cuban state television through a programme “dedicated to uncovering supposed plots against Cuba”.
Dissident
Raul Capote claims that he witnessed a meeting between then Reuters bureau chief Anthony Boadle and Mark Sullivan, who was a diplomat in the US Interests Section in Havana. He was
accused of being a CIA agent in the programme.
March 22nd, 2011
On Monday Cuba accused eminent blogger
Yoani Sanchez of being part of a
“cyber war” launched by America. They allege that the aim of these attacks is to destabilise the communist government in Cuba. Allegations were made against Sanchez in a documentary series accusing the US government of targeting Cuba through “cyber dissident proxies”.
March 8th, 2011
Cuban reporter Pedro Arguelles Moran has been
released from prison on parole. He is the last of the journalists jailed during the 2003 “Black Spring” crackdown to be freed. In April 2003 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison under
Law 88, for commiting acts “aimed at subverting the internal order of the nation”. He was
released as part of an agreement brokered by the Catholic church in 2010.
February 16th, 2011
Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, a journalist imprisoned during Cuba’s ‘Black Spring’ of 2003 was
released on 12 February. Unlike many of the 52 journalists and dissidents
released last July, Maseda, who co-founded the independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro, will not be forced to go into
exile. Six of the 11 prisoners who refused the
deal brokered with Spain have now been released and will be allowed to remain in Cuba. There are now just two ‘Black Spring’ journalists who are yet to be freed. Maseda was released
against his will, saying that he did not want to go without the others.
October 26th, 2010
Guillermo Farinas has
won the 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the European Union’s most prestigious human rights award. Farinas has spent much of the last 15 years in jail and has gone on hunger strike more than 20 times. His most recent hunger strike ended in July when the government
agreed to release 52 political prisoners. At the same time as the EU bestowed the accolade, Cuba authorised the
release of a further five prisoners, who were not among the originally specified 52. The released men are due to be transferred to Spain. 39 have already been released, but 13 have refused the deal and remain behind bars.
July 12th, 2010
The Cuban authorities have announced that they
intend to release 52 political prisoners. The first prisoners are expected to
arrive in Madrid tomorrow (13 July). Cuba has come under increased international pressure following the death of
political prisoner Orlando Zapato Tamayo in February. Tamayo had been on a hunger strike. The first five prisoners are being allowed to travel to Spain with their relatives. The remaining 47 will be released over the next few months, they will also be allowed to relocate to Spain. The Cuban Human Rights Commission claims that after the releases Cuban jails will still hold 110 political prisoners.
July 5th, 2010
Cuban authorities have
expelled prominent intellectual Esteban Morales from the Communist party after he alleged senior party members were corrupt. Writing on the
Cuban National Artists and Writers Union’s website, Morales claimed that party bureaucracy and the greed of unnamed high ranking party members would be the downfall of the communist state. The
article was quickly removed but not before being widely circulated. Rumours of corruption have been widespread in Cuba; two government ministers were recently being forced to resign following
allegations that they had used state aircraft for personal gain.
