As Pope John Paul II is embarking on his mission to Cuba, Human Rights Watch urges him to address the serious civil and political rights abuses committed by the Cuban government.
Among the urgent reforms the Vatican should promote in Cuba, according to Human Rights Watch, are an amnesty for political prisoners, reform of the penal code, an end to harassment of dissidents, the ratification and observation of international human rights conventions, respect for freedom of speech and association, legalization of independent Cuban human rights groups, and access to Cuba for international human rights observers. Vivanco suggested the Pope consider the European Union's December 1996 adoption of human rights conditions on economic cooperation a model for relations with the government of Fidel Castro.
At the same time, Human Rights Watch concurred with Vatican and United Nations criticism of the United States embargo on Cuba, which Vivanco derided as "singularly ineffective in producing human rights improvements in Cuba." Noting that the embargo's sole purpose is the overthrow of the Castro government, rather than concrete reforms, Vivanco said the sanctions had failed over the course of decades to produce any change in repressive mechanisms in Cuba. At the same time, the embargo's travel restrictions violate rights guaranteed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a treaty ratified by Washington.
Cuba's human rights problems include the routine crushing of internal dissent by the imposition of prison sentences for so-called crimes such as "enemy propaganda," "contempt for authority," "illicit association," "dangerousness," and "illegal exit." At least 800 political prisoners languish in extremely poor conditions, suffering abuses at the hands of guards or common criminals. Many of them experience dramatic weight loss due to meager food rations, and sometimes life-threatening health problems due to insufficient medical attention. Punitive measures such as prolonged incommunicado detention and beatings are frequent, in violation of Cuba's obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which it ratified in 1995. Prisoners protesting inhumane treatment face retaliatory measures, including beatings, isolation, and criminal prosecution. Moreover, Cuba stands alone in the Western Hemisphere for barring the International Committee of the Red Cross from carrying out its humanitarian mission inside its prisons. The government also restricts access by other humanitarian groups and human rights monitors.
Cuban security forces continue to harass and arbitrarily detain scores of nonviolent activists each year, including academics, human rights activists, labor organizers, religious leaders, youth groups, gays and lesbians, and members of unofficial political parties. Independent organizations face unauthorized searches and seizure of office equipment as well as the denial of legal recognition.
On July 15, 1997, security forces detained four prominent, nonviolent leaders of a group that has publicly encouraged a boycott of elections planned for late in the year, and issued a statement challenging Cuba's exclusive recognition of one political party. Professor Félix Antonio Bonne Carcasses, economists Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello and Vladimiro Roca Antúnez, and attorney René Gómez Manzano, members of the Internal Dissidents' Working Group (Grupo de Trabajo de la Disidencia Interna, GTDI), remain in prison and face possible prosecution for "enemy propaganda" and "revealing state secrets."
On January 9, 1997, Cuban authorities arrested Héctor Palacios Ruiz, the president of the Democratic Solidarity Party (Partido Solidaridad Democrática, PSD), charging him with contempt for the authority of President Castro and seizing his copies of the Viña del Mar Declaration, a document endorsing democracy and human rights which Castro signed in 1996 at the Sixth Iberoamerican Summit. Palacios Ruiz, whom the Cuban government sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment on September 4, 1997, had questioned the government's willingness to comply with the declaration in an interview with a German journalist.
In light of these abuses, Vivanco calls on the Pope "to do all in his power to ensure the swift release of political prisoners and secure the dismantling of Cuba's machinery of repression."
