DENOUNCEMENT TO THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS (CIDH) OF THE OAS, IN WASHINGTON, DC., THAT MURDERS, TORTURE AND PERSECUTION ARE ON THE INCREASE IN CUBA ON YEAR 2000

WASHINGTON, DC. (Correspondent) -- Dr. Claudio F. Benedí, who represents several organizations, has denounced before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) that in Cuba, up to this month of October, 2000, persecutions, physical and moral tortures, murders and executions by firing squads have increased.

The totalitarian communist regime has imprisoned 720 opponents since year 1999 until October, 2000.

The Cuban Commission on Human Rights has denounced that in the same period, 30 opponents and enemies of the communist regime have been executed by firing squads.

Mr. Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz, chairman of the Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, has stated that on this year 2000, and it has been published in the United States press, that from 20 to 30 opponents were executed by firing squads in Cuba during 1999.

The great offensive in violation of human rights in Cuba has increased since February 15 until October of this year 2000, and it threatens to become widespread. This includes imprisonment in secret jails, which is practically kidnapping, and the constant threats of secret execution are so violent and continuous that most human rights activists in Cuba deem it to be "the worst in the last ten years".

Dr. Benedí reiterates that there continue to be committed in Cuba, in this year, the INSTITUTIONAL AND HUMAN VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS, since the communist regime has not changed its institutional structure.

He also emphasizes that last July, in the commemoration of the anniversary of the revolution, the communist leader himself, in his totalitarian stage, in breaking all diplomatic customs and closing a new cycle of deceitful, sophisticated and malignant falsehood and simulation towards the United States (whom he is attempting to deceit once more), he reiterated what nobody should forget: That the totalitarian communist regime makes no concession or opening; that the death penalty would continue to be applied to those who conspire or in any manner fight against the communist regime, since there cannot be, nor can be tolerated, dissidents or opponents (he euphemistically calls his regime "a socialist system", to deceit useful idiots) who would want to destroy or paralyze it. They will die, because it is preferable that his enemies would die. That has been reiterated in November and December, 1999, and now in 2000, although they make issue deceitful statements to deceive the United States and the useful idiots.

Those who would help the United States would be severely punished (with sentences of imprisonment of up to 20 and 30 years, and in some serious cases the death penalty) and also imprisonment for dissidents and the independent press that would play into the formers' hands. He has been doing just that until October, 2000, with some deceitful concessions.

Dr. Benedí underlines that denouncements for violations of human rights in Cuba by the totalitarian communist regime are made not only in the Americas, but also in Europe and other parts of the world, and we will only quote some, in order not to make the list too extensive:

On February 5, 2000, the "Siglo XX" magazine of Mexico condemned the beating given by the Castroite henchmen in the town of Pedro Betancourt to the Sigler-Amaya family, for requesting the release of political prisoners. "Siglo XX" condemned the dictator Castro and his gangster-like regime.

On December 10, the Warsaw Freedom Union, of Poland, condemned the violations of Human Rights in Cuba by the Castro-communist dictatorship.

Document released in support of dissidents. On November 15, 1999, President Vaclav Havel, together with several former Czech dissidents, released a document in Prague, supporting Cuban dissidents. Also, former President Lech Walesa, of Poland, and Yelena Bonner, the widow of Sakharov, with 45 former dissidents of Eastern Europe, signed that document.

On this year, the French Minister of Foreign Relations criticized the arrests in Cuba. He mentioned "the numerous arrests of peaceful opponents and dissidents in the recent weeks in Cuba, which have considerably increased", when Felipe Pérez Roque, Castro's Chancellor, visited the former recently.

The Organization "Human Rights Watch", in its annual report, denounced on December 10 that "Cuba is the place where human rights are violated the most by the government".

The Inter-American Society of the Press (SIP) has denounced and condemned in several instances the violations of human rights in Cuba, emphasizing that there does not exist freedom of the press in Cuba. It has now reiterated its denouncements in Chile. The SIP added emphatically: "Democracy cannot exist under controlled information. Even more, penalizing diversity of opinions on behalf of national security is a vague recourse that ultimately attempts to shut up the Cuban press, that without any ties or political/ideological commitments divulges the reality of the country", the SIP underlined. It also said that by forcing a whole society to have the same line of thought "attempts against the very human nature and is a violation of the human rights of citizens, whom their government alleges to defend". All of this has been reiterated in this year.

UNITES STATES CITES AND CRITICIZES THE CUBAN COMMUNIST REGIME FOR THE APPROVAL OF A NEW LAW THAT INCREASES THE VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS, AND ALSO DENOUNCES IN ITS ANNUAL REPORT THE CONTINUOUS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA

The spokesman of the US. Department of State, Mr. Foley, said on behalf of the United States that the penal reforms and measures approved by the Cuban Congress "support the repressive nature of the regime. He added that the same are "a clear attempt to quash independence of thought and civil society".

PROTESTATION FROM THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE

On February 11, 2000, the International Press Institute, based in Vienna, Austria, denounced how the Castro's security forces continue to repress Cuban journalists who report what is happening in their country. They highlighted in their denouncement the prison terms being served by independent journalists: Bernardo Arévalo, beaten several times at the Ariza prison; Lorenzo Páez, imprisoned in Pinar del Río, and Juan Carlos Recio Martínez, sentenced to hard labor in Villaclara. The Institute also denounced how "the Castro government controls everything that is published and imposes a strict prohibition of access to the Internet, that can only be used by government personnel and is forbidden for everybody else".

VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA DENOUNCED FROM GERMANY

Professor Henrich Brechtmann, of Essen, Germany, chairman of the Commission for Human Rights, has performed an intense campaign to denounce the violations of human rights by the communist regime in Cuba, since 1999 to this year 2000.

IMPRISONMENT OF CUBAN JOURNALISTS DENOUNCED AND THEIR RELEASE SOUGHT

The well-known organization REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS (MSF) has raised its voice in protesting before the whole of the Americas, demanding that the Cuban communist regime to stop its pressures on three independent journalists, and to release another three who serve sentences for trying to practice their journalistic profession. Journalists subjected to those denounced pressures are: Amarilys Cortina, Gustavo Carrero and Margarita Yero. It also denounced that journalists Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, Miguel Antonio González Castenos and Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández continue to be imprisoned. The former two were sentenced to 27 months and 6 years respectively, the second one for alleged contempt, and the third received a sentence of 4 years in prison for "social dangerousness". The MSF denounces that there is not any freedom of the press in Cuba; the only press is the official communist one. This is a patent fact that can be verified.

Finally, Dr. Benedí warns that any decrease in the category of denouncements or the appreciation of what is happening in Cuba, in this year 2000, could be erroneously construed as a variation in the frequence of violations or a change in the institutional structure of the totalitarian communist regime, which would be totally mistaken, inaccurate and counterproductive. Any mitigation in phraseology and the enumeration of violations could send a wrong signal to those who are not aware of the monstrosities that continue to happen nowadays in Cuba. Silence could be interpreted as partiality.               [Home]