In 2008...

President Fidel Castro Ruiz has been the unchallenged leader of Cuba since 1959, when his revolutionary forces overthrew the US-backed regime of Fulgencio Batista and introduced Communist rule. In the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba endured a significant decrease in financial and economic aid from its ex-Soviet allies, aggravated by an economic embargo imposed by the USA since 1962.

The post-Soviet shift in political and economic alignment forced Fidel Castro’s government to seek new alliances with like-minded countries in the Latin American region. The improvement in relations across the continent reached its zenith in 2005-2006, with the rise to power of leftist government coalitions guided by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia and Eduardo Correa in Ecuador. The leaders of these countries are linked by populist ideals and a strong anti-US stance and, even more importantly, by economic relationships. Cuba, for example, benefits from cheap oil and gas from Venezuela in exchange for doctors and teachers from Cuba.

In 2006, for the first time since the revolution in 1959, Fidel Castro’s hold on power weakened. Following surgery in July, he transferred full presidential power and responsibilities to his brother Raúl Castro. More than a year since Raúl Castro took over, little has noticeably changed in Cuban society. Although he has hinted at the need for economic and structural reforms and improvement in relations with the USA, there has been little suggestion of any intention to loosen the political control of the regime on the Cuban people.

Cuba is a country in which many forms of expression – political, religious and identity-based – are repressed through the use of criminal prosecutions, long and short-term detention, mob harassment, police warnings, surveillance, house arrests, travel restrictions and politically motivated dismissal from employment. Furthermore, there are sweeping restrictions on freedom of expression and association that extend to many parts of Cuban society.

The fraught relationship with the USA continues to cast a shadow over Cuba’s economic and political evolution. Illegal immigration from Cuba to the USA continues unabated; the US Coast Guard intercepted 2,810 individuals attempting to cross the Straits of Florida in the 12 months to 30 September 2006. Meanwhile the US embargo prevents the country from accessing resources, hindering Cuba’s economic development and providing the Cuban authorities with a pretext for severely curtailing freedom of expression and other civil and political rights.

Legal and Regulatory Framework

In Cuba’s legal framework, the right to freedom of expression is subservient to the achievement of the objectives of the socialist State. Intimidation, harassment and detention of journalists, dissidents and human rights activists are commonplace.

The Cuban Constitution was last updated in 1992 and draws its inspiration from the theories of Marxism and Leninism. Article 5 positions the Communist Party as the driving force of the State and society, which ‘organises and orientates the common efforts towards the high purposes of the construction of socialism’. Under Article 53 of the Constitution, freedom of expression is acknowledged as long as it remains ‘in keeping with the objectives of a socialist society.’ Article 62 outlines specific restrictions on all the freedoms granted to citizens, including freedom of expression, and states that none of these freedoms ‘can be exercised contrary to what is established in the Constitution and by law, or contrary to the existence and objectives of the socialist State, or contrary to the decision of the Cuban people to build socialism and communism.’

‘In Cuba’s legal framework, the right to freedom of expression is subservient to the achievement of the objectives of the socialist State. Intimidation, harassment and detention of journalists, dissidents and human rights activists are commonplace.’

According to the Committee for the Protection of Journalist’s report published to mark World Press Freedom Day on 3 May 2006, Cuba is one of the world’s 10 most censored countries. Although there is no law in Cuba that explicitly establishes censorship, the Department for Revolutionary Orientation, which comes under the authority of the Political Bureau’s Ideological Secretary of the Communist Party, is dedicated to the control of the flow of information in Cuban society. The Cuban Criminal Code provides the legal basis for repression of dissent. Any views perceived to be anti-government or pro-US are criminalised, as is the spreading of ‘unauthorised news’. According to provisions in the Criminal Code, the National Revolutionary Police Force can arrest or order surveillance of someone who has not yet committed an illegal act on the sole grounds of their perceived ‘dangerousness’ and an ‘official warning’ can also be issued against them.

Further provisions curtailing freedom of expression are found in Law 80/1996 on Reaffirmation of Cuba’s Dignity and Sovereignty, the subsequent Law 88/1999 for the protection of Cuba’s National Independence and Economy and Article 91 of the Cuban Criminal Code, which were all approved following the enactment of the 1996 Helms-Burton Law in the USA strengthening the embargo against Cuba. In particular, Article 91 of the Criminal Code (Acts against the Independence and the Territorial Integrity of the State), establishes that: ‘The person who, in the interest of a foreign State, commits an act with the intent to cause damage to the independence of the Cuban State or the integrity of its territory, shall be punished with 10 to 20 years in prison or death.’

The activities of foreign journalists in Cuba are monitored by the International Press Centre (CPI), established by Resolution 44/97. Foreign journalists require a special visa to authorise their stay in Cuba. The CPI has the power to arbitrarily withdraw visas from those journalists who do not comply with its rules and in so doing cooperates closely with the immigration authorities under the Ministry of the Interior. Resolution 44/97 also states that no foreign agencies can hire a Cuban journalist as a correspondent without the mediation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The right to seek and receive information from government is not established in Cuban law. Access to many documents and files of the National Archives and Library is strictly controlled. Access to government documents is limited by the security rules set out in the State Secrets Law No. 1246 of 1973 and its successive regulations, the latest of which was adopted in June 2006 (Decree Law 99 on the security and protection of official information). The State Secrets Law applies to all the State’s administrative documents and violations of the law are punished according to the provisions of the Criminal Code. The State can also arbitrarily order the destruction of documents and so avoid any retrospective disclosure of information.

Political Expression

‘The absence of independent media leaves little space for open political debate in Cuba and in any case the denial of a political contest at elections leaves little to report.’

The absence of independent media leaves little space for open political debate in Cuba and in any case the denial of a political contest at elections leaves little to report. Cuba is a one-party State; the Communist Party of Cuba is the only legal party. Nominees for election to the national, provincial and municipal assemblies are selected on an individual basis and no political parties are permitted to campaign. The National Assembly of People’s Power is composed of 609 members who serve five-year terms. The Assembly meets twice a year and elects a Council of State, headed by the President, to exercise legislative power between Assembly sessions.

Almost all adult Cubans belong to community-based Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, which play a central role in daily life. These groups are designed to coordinate public projects and protect and ensure socialist ideology among citizens, and also act as a neighbourhood watchdog against ‘counter-revolutionary’ activity.

News Media

In Cuba there is no private independent press; all media outlets are owned and controlled by the Communist Party. Newspapers are not directly published by the government but by Cuban political organisations such as the Cuban Communist Party and the Cuban Union Movement. The main national newspapers are Granma – the official newspaper of the Communist Party which includes speeches by Fidel Castro and official announcements by the Cuban government – Juventud Rebelde and Trabajadores. There are nine regional newspapers.

Virtually all of the 58 television stations in Cuba are owned by the State-owned Cuban Radio and Television Corporation. The most watched networks are Cubavisión, Tele Rebelde (the television counterpart to Radio Rebelde), Canal Educativo, Canal Educativo 2 and Canal Habana. These frequently broadcast educational programmes, such as Universidad para Todos (University for All), with language, maths and cooking courses as well as Brazilian, Mexican and Colombian soap operas.

Films, books and music are produced, but State control of the cultural and arts agenda means that those whose content is considered counter-revolutionary are not distributed through official media channels, and can result in artists being prevented from performing or risking detention.

New Technologies

According to a report by Reporters Without Borders on control of the Internet, Going online in Cuba: Internet under Surveillance, published in October 2006, only two per cent of the Cuban population has access to the Internet. The two existing Internet providers are both the property of the State-owned company Empresa Telefonica de Cuba. The Cuban government blames the US embargo for preventing access to the technologies and the material Cuba needs for a low-cost Internet cable network, forcing them to use expensive satellite connections.

Following the rising popularity of the Internet, in 1996 the government passed a Decree-Law (No. 209) entitled Access from the Republic of Cuba to the Global Computer Network, which states that Internet usage must not violate the moral principles of Cuban society or the country’s laws. Even more restrictions were introduced with the creation of an Information Technologies and Communication Ministry in 2000.

According to Reporters Without Borders, if a Cuban citizen wishes to have private Internet access, they must provide a ‘valid reason’ and must obtain ‘accreditation’ from a local commission, which evaluates the applicant’s merits. Illegal connection to the Internet can lead to a five-year prison sentence, so most people have to use public access points such as Internet cafés, universities and ‘youth computing centres’.

There are two types of Internet connection in Cuba: a cheaper one – which just enables users to access a national e-mail service – and an international one providing access to the World Wide Web. The latter is expensive for Cuban citizens, costing per hour the equivalent of a third of the average monthly salary. It is viewed primarily as a luxury for foreigners and tourists and as a result there is no filtering system blocking access to ‘dissident’ sites. This said, if an e-mail user writes something containing suspect key-words, an automatic message usually pops up, warning that the programme will be shut down for security reasons, courtesy of government-installed software. Consequently, there is a great deal of self-censorship in everyday communications.

Furthermore, under the Cuban Criminal Code, writing an article for a foreign website can be considered ‘counter-revolutionary’ and lead to a 20-year prison sentence. In protest at the government’s severe restrictions on Internet usage, independent journalist and Director of the Cubanacán Press Agency Guillermo Fariñas undertook a seven-month hunger strike, affirming that he could not honourably practice his profession. Following his hospitalisation, he was awarded the 2006 Cyber-freedom prize by Reporters Without Borders.

Repression of Media Workers

Under the provisions of the Criminal Code, the government can order the pre-emptive surveillance or conviction of individuals even though they have committed no illegal act. This threat of criminalisation inevitably affects the activity of the press and of media workers in general.

However, without necessarily resorting to such extreme measures, there are several forms of harassment and intimidation carried out against journalists and human rights activists by, among others, Committees to Defend the Revolution and People’s Rapid Response Brigades. These are locally organised groups which collectively guard against counter-revolutionary activities and confront any sign of opposition to the government through direct action. These so-called acts of repudiation consist mainly of verbal abuse or intimidation but occasionally also involve physical assault and throwing stones at the homes of Cubans considered to be ‘enemies of the State’.

The pretext under which many human rights defenders or journalists are harassed, threatened and put in jail is that they are considered to be dissidents trying to undermine the Cuban government and the socialist system. In many cases, they are even accused of being financed and controlled by the USA.

‘Under the provisions of the Criminal Code, the government can order the pre-emptive surveillance or conviction of individuals even though they have committed no illegal act. This threat of criminalisation inevitably affects the activity of the press and of media workers in general.’

In March 2003, the Cuban government launched a massive crackdown on dissidents, human rights defenders, independent journalists and trade unionists. Almost 90 pro-democracy activists were detained and 75 of those arrested were tried and convicted of attempting to subvert the authority of the State, spying for the USA and reporting lies about the Cuban economy to the foreign press. Among those convicted were 22 journalists who received sentences ranging from six to 28 years’ imprisonment.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, there are currently 24 independent journalists unjustly imprisoned in Cuba. On 6 November 2006, journalist Guillermo Espinosa Rodriguez from the Agencia de Prensa Libre Oriental was sentenced by a court in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba to two years’ house arrest for being a ‘danger to society’. Dissident journalist Raymundo Perdigón Brito was sentenced to four years in prison on 5 December 2006 for being a ‘pre-criminal danger to society’. He had been arrested by the State Security Police on 29 November and warned to stop his journalistic activities. Around 100 demonstrators attacked Perdigón Brito’s relatives as they left the court and his father was hospitalised after receiving a blow to the chest. In August 2007, Betancourt Reina, a reporter for the independent news agency Nueva Prensa Cubana, was released. He had been jailed for 15 months in July 2006 for covering the eviction of poor families from their homes in Camagüey in May 2006.

In its 2006 annual report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights highlighted the continuing physical mistreatment of prisoners of conscience in Cuba, including journalists, who are subjected to long periods of isolation, with serious consequences for their physical and mental health. Freelance journalist Carlos Herrera Acosta was severely beaten on 29 August 2006 while in custody at the Kilo 8 prison of Camagüey, where he is serving a 20-year prison sentence. He was attacked by two guards when he was reiterating a demand to be allowed to make a phone call – a right that was routinely denied to him.

Repression of Other Groups

Detention without charge or trial, particularly using charges of ‘pre-criminal dangerousness’, including association with a ‘dangerous person’ for counter-revolutionary activities, is widely used.

The State does not recognise human rights monitoring as a legitimate activity, and denies legal status to local human rights groups.

The outright intolerance of religion in the early revolutionary years has decreased slightly. However, all religion remains strictly controlled by the State.

While the 1979 penal code formally decriminalised homosexuality, gay behaviour causing a ‘public scandal’ can be punished by up to 12 months’ imprisonment. While there is some public tolerance of homosexuality, there are still reports of gay bars and clubs being targeted by the police and in 1997 the Cuban Association of Gays and Lesbians, formed in 1994, was suppressed and its members were arrested. There are gay rights campaigners in Cuba, the most influential among them is Mariella Castro (Raúl Castro’s daughter) who has used her position as head of the national sex education centre to draw attention to discrimination and worked to change attitudes and practices.

A Time of Change

The unanimous selection by Cuba’s National Assembly of Raúl Castro to succeed his brother Fidel Castro as leader will undoubtedly bring about a time of change. However, the appointment of one the original leaders of Cuba’s Communist revolution, Machado Ventura, as first Vice-President may be indicative of the degree and cautious nature of the changes envisaged. Nevertheless, the signing in February 2008 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights offers some opportunity for Cuba to renew its commitments to respect rights including freedom of expression and association, and freedom of movement.