Black Spring (Cuba)
Black Spring refers to the 2003 crackdown on Cuban dissidents.[1][2][3][4] The government imprisoned 75 dissidents, that included 29 journalists,[1] as well as librarians, human rights activists, and democracy activists, on the basis that they were acting as agents of the United States by accepting aid from the US government. Although Amnesty International adopted 75 Cubans as prisoners of conscience[5], according to Cuba "the 75 individuals arrested, tried and sentenced in March/April 2003 ... who were jailed are demonstrably not independent thinkers, writers or human rights activists, but persons directly in the pay of the US government. ... those who were arrested and tried were charged not with criticizing the government, but for receiving American government funds and collaborating with U.S diplomats." [6]
The crackdown on grassroots activists began on March 18 and lasted two days, coordinated with the US invasion of Iraq for minimum publicity.[1]
Responding to human rights violations, the European Union imposed sanctions on the Castro regime in 2003, that were lifted on January 2008.[7] The European Union declared that the arrests "constituted a breach of the most elementary human rights, especially as regards freedom of expression and political association".[8]
All of the dissidents were eventually released, most of whom were exiled to Spain starting in 2010.[9][10]
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[edit] Imprisoned people
Manuel Vázquez Portal received the International Press Freedom Award in 2003.[11] Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez received the same prize in 2008, while locked up in a maximum-security prison.[12]
List of 75 jailed dissidents and their prison sentences:[5]
- Nelson Aguiar Ramírez 13 years
- Osvaldo Alfonso Valdés 18 years
- Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos 25 years
- Pedro Argüelles Morán 20 years
- Víctor Rolando Arroyo Carmona 26 years
- Mijail Barzaga Lugo 15 years
- Oscar Elías Biscet González 25 years
- Margarito Broche Espinosa 25 years
- Marcelo Cano Rodríguez 18 years
- Roberto de Miranda Hernández 20 years
- Carmelo Díaz Fernández 15 years
- Eduardo Díaz Fleitas 21 years
- Antonio Díaz Sánchez 20 years
- Alfredo Domínguez Batista 14 years
- Oscar Espinosa Chepe 20 years
- Alfredo Felipe Fuentes 26 years
- Efrén Fernández Fernández 12 years
- Adolfo Fernández Sainz 15 years
- José Daniel Ferrer García 25 years
- Luis Enrique Ferrer García 28 years
- Orlando Fundora Alvarez 18 years
- Próspero Gaínza Agüero 25 years
- Miguel Galván Gutiérrez 26 years
- Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez 15 years
- Edel José García Díaz 15 years
- José Luis García Paneque 24 years
- Ricardo Gonzales Alfonso 20 years
- Diosdado González Marrero 20 years
- Léster González Pentón 20 years
- Alejandro González Raga 14 years
- Jorge Luis González Tanquero 20 years
- Leonel Grave de Peralta Almenares 20 years
- Iván Hernández Carrillo 25 years
- Normando Hernández González 25 years
- Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta 20 years
- Regis Iglesias Ramírez 18 years
- José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernandez 16 years
- Reinaldo Labrada Peña 6 years
- Librado Linares García 20 years
- Marcelo López Bañobre 15 years
- José Miguel Martínez Hernández 13 years
- Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez 20 years
- Mario Enrique Mayo Hernández 20 years
- Luis Milán Fernández 13 years
- Nelson Moliné Espino 20 years
- Angel Moya Acosta 20 years
- Jesús Mustafá Felipe 25 years
- Felix Navarro Rodríguez 25 years
- Jorge Olivera Castillo 18 years
- Pablo Pacheco Avila 20 years
- Héctor Palacios Ruíz 25 years
- Arturo Pérez de Alejo Rodríguez 20 years
- Omar Pernet Hernández 25 years
- Horacio Piña Borrego 20 years
- Fabio Prieto Llorente 20 years
- Alfredo Pulido López 14 years
- José Gabriel Ramón Castillo 20 years
- Arnaldo Ramos Lauzerique 18 years
- Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodríguez 25 years
- Raúl Rivero Castañeda 20 years
- Alexis Rodríguez Fernández 15 years
- Omar Rodríguez Saludes 27 years
- Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello 20 years
- Omar Moisés Ruiz Hernández 18 years
- Claro Sánchez Altarriba 18 years
- Ariel Sigler Amaya 20 years
- Guido Sigler Amaya 20 years
- Ricardo Enrique Silva Gual 10 years
- Fidel Suárez Cruz 20 years
- Manuel Ubals González 20 years
- Julio Antonio Valdés Guevara 20 years
- Miguel Valdés Tamayo 15 years
- Héctor Raúl Valle Hernández 12 years
- Manuel Vázquez Portal 18 years
- Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta 15 years
[edit] Related movements
The wives of imprisoned activists, led by Laura Pollán, formed a movement called Ladies in White. The movement received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament in 2005.
[edit] Baraguá Ferry Hijacking
On April 2, 2003, the Baraguá ferry was sailing in Havana Bay with about 50 people onboard when it was commandeered by a group of hijackers. The group- led by Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Barbaro Leodan Sevilla Garcia and Jorge Luis Martinez Isaac- ordered the captain to sail to the United States. Hours later, with two Cuban Coast Guard patrol boats in their wake, the ferry ran out of fuel in the Florida Straits. After much negotiation, the hijackers agreed to let the ferry be towed back to Cuba for more fuel. However, Cuban authorities were waiting for them at the Mariel port, where they engaged in a standoff with the hijackers that only ended when one of the ferry’s female passengers jumped off-board. Soon, the other hostages followed her into the water, as well as the hijackers. No one was hurt in the ordeal. The hijackers were arrested and charged with “very grave acts of terrorism” by the Cuban courts, punishable by death. After a quick and secret trial, the three group leaders were executed by firing squad on the morning of April 11, 2003, becoming the country's last victims of the death penalty. The four remaining hijackers are serving life sentences.[13] [14]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Cuba's Long Black Spring - A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists
- Interviews (video) with imprisoned dissidents who were released to Spain
- Spring Nightmare - Manuel Vázquez Portal, an imprisoned Cuban writer, poet, and journalist, describes the prison conditions.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Carlos Lauria, Monica Campbell, and María Salazar (March 18, 2008). "Cuba's Long Black Spring". The Committee To Protect Journalists. http://cpj.org/reports/2008/03/cuba-press-crackdown.php.
- ^ "Black Spring of 2003: A former Cuban prisoner speaks". The Committee to Protect Journalists. http://cpj.org/blog/2009/03/the-black-spring-of-2003-a-former-cuban-prisoner-s.php.
- ^ "Three years after "black spring" the independent press refuses to remain in the dark". The Reporters Without Borders. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16771.
- ^ "Cuba - No surrender by independent journalists, five years on from "black spring"". The Reporters Without Borders. March 2008. http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/Cuba_report.pdf.
- ^ a b "Cuba: "Essential measures"? Human rights crackdown in the name of security". Amnesty International. 2 June 2003. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR25/005/2004.
- ^ [http://www.granma.cu/ingles/mayo03/jue8/statement-code-i.html "ON RECENT EVENTS IN CUBA Statement by the Nova Scotia Cuba Association"]. Granma.cu. 8 May 2003. http://www.granma.cu/ingles/mayo03/jue8/statement-code-i.html.
- ^ "EU lifts sanctions against Cuba". BBC. 20 June 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7463803.stm.
- ^ "Sakharov nominee: Cuban women who protest against unjust imprisonment". European Parliament. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20051017FCS01528+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN#title3.
- ^ "Dissidents' release draws line under Cuba crackdown". BBC News. 24 March 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12842392.
- ^ http://en.rsf.org/report-cuba,174.html
- ^ "Awards 2003 - Vazquez Portal". The Committee to Protect Journalists. http://cpj.org/awards/2003/vazquez.php.
- ^ "Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, Founder and contributor, Grupo de Trabajo Decoro". The Committee to Protect Journalists. http://cpj.org/awards/2008/guit.php.
- ^ Cosgrove-Mather, Bootie (4/11/2003). "Cuba Executes Ferry Hijackers". CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/01/world/main547164.shtml. Retrieved 1/5/2010.
- ^ Gonzalez, David (4/12/2003). "Cuba Executes 3 who tried to reach U.S. in a hijacking". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/12/world/cuba-executes-3-who-tried-to-reach-us-in-a-hijacking.html. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
