New York, July 7,
2010—The Catholic Church in Cuba said today that the government of
President Raúl Castro has agreed to release dozens of political prisoners over the
next several weeks, raising hopes that numerous imprisoned journalists could be
freed.
“If imprisoned journalists are freed, as suggested by the
church’s announcement, it cannot come a moment too soon. These journalists and
their families have experienced the anguish of unjustified imprisonment and
cruel treatment,” said Carlos Lauría, CPJ’s senior program coordinator for the
Americas. “We call on President Castro to release all jailed journalists and to
allow freedom of expression for all Cuban citizens.”
In a statement,
Cuba’s Roman Catholic Church said five political prisoners would be released immediately,
with 47 freed over a three- to four-month period. The statement, issued by
church spokesman Orlando Márquez Hidalgo, said all of those to be freed had
been jailed during the March 2003 crackdown against dissidents and independent
journalists, a period that came to be known as the Black Spring.
The announcement came after a meeting in Havana today
between Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, head of Cuba’s Roman Catholic Church,
and President Castro, the church said in its statement. Spanish Minister of Foreign
Affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos and his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodríguez, also
participated in the meeting, according Granma, Cuba’s
official paper.
Cuba’s Catholic Church has been actively negotiating with
the Cuban government for the release of political prisoners. In May, the church
reached an agreement with the Cuban government to transfer political prisoners
being held in prisons far from their families to facilities closer to their homes,
press reports said. Six imprisoned journalists, including CPJ International
Press Freedom Awardee Héctor Maseda
Gutiérrez, were transferred to jails closer to their homes.
The health of Cuban journalists has
seriously deteriorated amid poor prison conditions and insufficient health care,
CPJ research shows. Relatives
and friends have described health problems ranging from diabetes and tumors to pneumonia
and cataracts. In some cases, journalists received scant medical attention; in
most cases, poor and unsanitary prison conditions exacerbated medical problems.
Pre-existing ailments worsened in prison, while a host of serious new illnesses
arose.
With 21 independent journalists currently imprisoned, Cuba is one
of the world’s worst jailers of journalists—behind only Iran
and China.
Twenty of these journalists were jailed during the March 2003 crackdown. After
perfunctory, closed-door trials, the journalists were handed prison sentences
of up to 28 years in prison on antistate charges stemming from their reporting.
The journalists had worked for independent news agencies, filing stories by
phone and fax to overseas news outlets and Web sites.
Over the past seven years, Cuba has freed a small number
of journalists in exchange for international political concessions, but it has
released none since February 2008, CPJ research shows.
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