IN CUBA THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF PRISONERS WITH ARBITRARY CAUSES
Washington, December 10, 2018. UNPACU.
The US State Department has sent an open letter to the Government of Cuba expressing all the refusals of the regime to respond to the public offer given by Raúl Castro in the speech he made to Barak Obama. This offer consisted in indicating that there were no political prisoners, and that if there was a list, that they sent him the list for liberating them right away. Here you can see the moment:
Since then, the American government on numerous occasions through private communications with the Cuban regime has requested explanations about the more than 100 political prisoners affiliated to opposition organizations, only for these (which is the most complete information since the the regime usually does not deliver the sentences to the prisoners or their families), including dozens of them who have only the crime of “Pre-Delinquent Social Danger”, a motive for the imprisonment of thousands of people in Cuba and dozens belonging to opposition organizations , in which a person enters a prison without having committed a crime, not even in a tentative degree. The Cuban judges judge, for this crime, that there are possibilities that the person could commit crimes due to the budget “capacity” of the judges in Cuba to predict such behaviors by the typology of the person. That is, the “precog”, or “pre-crime”, as seen in the movie Minority Report starring Tom Cruise. In that case of science fiction, the precog, 3 autistic with pre-cognitive capacities saw the crimes before they happened. In Cuba, all judges when they graduate and practice, have that pre-cognitive quality.
For this false crime, only for this one, there are thousands of prisoners in Cuban prisons, which in total hold 110,000 prisoners for a country of 11 million inhabitants, 10% of the population. All of a world record.
A very recent study by the FAES Foundation clearly showed how Cuba applies its criminal code, and how it is drafted in such a way that Cuba can imprison anyone for any reason.
Now, starting with the prisoners who are monitored by the opposition, minority organizations in a country where repression and surveillance are institutionalized, who have been imprisoned for political reasons, and who have also been imprisoned in peaceful attitudes and actions of conscience, the United States brings to light the demands for explanation and information that it has had since that day, when Raúl Castro asked for the list of political prisoners, that have been permanently ignored by the island’s regime.
Enclosed we transcribe the Communiqué of the US Department of State in this regard in an open letter to the Government of Cuba in a text dated December 7, 2018. This letter can also be accessed on the website of the United States Department of State.
December 7, 2018
His Excellency
Bruno Eduardo Rodriguez Parrilla
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Of the Republic of Cuba
Havana
Dear Mr. Minister:
The United States has for decades expressed profound concern regarding Cuban political prisoners. Such prisoners include those charged with pre-criminal “dangerousness,” defined as “the special inclination an individual has to commit crimes demonstrated by conduct in manifest contradiction to the rules of socialist morality.” Former President Castro, in a news conference with then President Obama in March 2016, said that if U.S. officials presented him with a list of political prisoners, they would be released that very night. He received such a list, but political prisoners remained in detention. U.S. representatives raised the issue during the October 2016 Human Rights Dialogue in Havana. They were told all prisoners were in jail for sound reasons and that, if we had questions as to the reasons, we could raise them. Our representatives were also advised that pre criminal “dangerousness” was no longer used as a basis for imprisoning people. The illustrative list the U.S. government provided to your ambassador in January 2017 contained a number of political prisoners serving time for this offense. The United States received no response to our request for the promised explanations. Over 100 political prisoners remain in jail.
During the June Bilateral Commission meeting, we sought to provide an updated list to your vice minister. He refused to accept it and said Cuba never had any intention of responding to the list it had accepted in 2017. He also advised us to request a Human Rights Dialogue by diplomatic note, which we sent in July 2018. Again, your government has not provided a formal response.
Under these circumstances, we have little option but to raise these questions in public fora. At an October 16 U.S.-organized event at the United Nations, the Cuban delegation – instead of responding substantively – shouted, pounded the tables, and destroyed U.N. property.
I am now asking you to provide a substantive explanation of the detention of the political prisoners on the attached list. First, I ask whether your government continues to incarcerate those listed as charged with “pre-criminal dangerousness.” Second, I ask for an explanation of the charges and the evidence against the other individuals. The United States recognizes the sovereign right of every state to try and to convict individuals for violating criminal laws, provided they are afforded fair trial guarantees by an independent and impartial tribunal. That principle, however, does not justify the imprisonment of Cuban individuals for simply exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of religion, expression, assembly, or association.
We urge you to live up to the assertion made during your October 24 press conference that the Cuban government is willing to engage with us on any topic including human rights. We are ready to do so. In the meantime, I ask that you provide the answers to these questions that your leadership has promised the world. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Michael R. Pompeo
Enclosures:
As stated.
ILLUSTRATIVE LIST OF CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS
Yosvany Sánchez Valenciano
Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU)
Charges: Desacato (“Contempt”) (two charges)
Sentence Length: Four years each, eight years total
Melkis Faure Echevarria
Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU)
Charges: Desorden Publico, Atentado y Resistencia
Sentence Length: Two sentences of three and four years, respectively (seven years total)
Yanier Suárez Tamayo
Unión Patriotica de Cuba (UNPACU)
Charges: Desacato (“Contempt”)
Length of Sentence: Three years
Eduardo Cardet Concepción
Movimiento Cristiano Liberación (MCL)
Charges: Atentado, Desacato, Difamación de las Instituciones, Organizaciones, Héroes y
Mártires de la Revolución
Sentence Length: Three years
Yoeni de Jesús Guerra García
Journalist; Consejo de Relatores de Derechos Humanos
Charges: Robo, Sacrificio Ilegal de Ganado (Theft, Illegal Slaughter of Livestock)
Sentence Length: Seven years
Martha Sánchez
Damas de Blanco
Charges: Desacato, Desobediencia, Perjuicio
Sentence Length: Five years
José Rolando Casares Soto
Mesa de Dialogo de la Juventud Cubana
Charges: Atentado, Desacato, Ultraje Sexual
Sentence Length: Five years (since 2/23/17)
Yamilka Abascal Sánchez
Mesa de Dialogo de la Juventud Cubana
Charges: Desacato en contra de los máximos líderes del estado
Sentence Length: Two years (since 2/23/17)
