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Raúl Rivero is among the first generation of journalists trained at Havana University's School of Journalism after the 1959 revolution. He co-founded the satirical magazine Caimán Barbudo in 1966. He worked as Moscow correspondent for the government news agency, Prensa Latina, from 1973 to 1976 before returning to Cuba to head the agency's science and culture service. Rivero resigned from the National Union of Cuban Writers in 1989 and made a formal break with the regime two years later when on June 2, 1991, he signed the famous "Carta de los Intelectuales" (Intellectuals' Letter), a petition calling on Castro to free prisoners of conscience. He abandoned official journalism this same year, dismissing it as a "fiction about a country that does not exist."
In 1995 Rivero founded CubaPress, one of a handful of independent, and illegal, news agencies set up by dissident journalists in order to provide an alternative to Cuba's state-owned media. Before his recent arrest, Rivero was viewed as a political dissident and was not legally permitted to publish or broadcast in Cuba.
Rivero is also a renowned poet, whose works have been published in Europe and the United States, in addition to being widely circulated on the Internet. Most recently, his book "Sin pan y sin palabras" (Without Bread and Without Words) was published in Spain in June of 2003.
Case history:
Raúl Rivero was arrested on March 31, 2003 as part of a nationwide round-up of dissidents
initiated by the Cuban government on March 18. His home was thoroughly searched and reports indicated that numerous bags of papers and manuscripts were removed. He was accused of, among other charges, creating the journalists' organization Sociedad de
Periodistas Manuel Márquez Sterling and its "subversive" magazine, De Cuba.
Rivero was charged under Article 91 of the Penal Code with "acts against the independence or territorial integrity of the state."
He was tried just days after his arrest by Havana's 10 October district court, along
with dissident journalist Ricardo González Alfonso. After a six hour trial, both men were quickly sentenced to
20 years in prison for "collaboration with the United States." The People's Supreme Court
upheld this sentence on appeal on June 23. It acknowledged that
the sentences against Rivero and González Alfonso were "heavy, but suitable for
the gravity of the offenses and the dangerous behavior" of the two men. The court said the
sentences were "an example" and that the defendants had to be "truly reeducated" and others
"who wanted to imitate them" had to be dissuaded.
Current status:
Rivero's wife, Blanca Reyes, says "sending him to prison for 20 years is the equivalent of
life imprisonment, since he's 57 and has a lot of health problems." Rivero is serving his
sentence at the maximum security prison of Canaleta, in Ciego de Ávila province,
about 400 km away from his home in Havana. Despite the distance, his wife was able to
visit him on June 11, 2003. She reported that he is being held on his own in a cell and is
allowed into the prison courtyard for one hour a day. He has high blood pressure for which
he is being given the medicine supplied by his family. The prison authorities are also
passing on to him paper and pencils, which his family is providing, so he can write. However,
he is only allowed to write love poems with no political allusions.
While Rivero's news agency, CubaPress, has survived, harassment of those still free
has increased. Searches, police "visits" to their homes, summonses for questioning at state security centers, pressure on family members and threats of further trials are some of the tactics
used by the authorities to pressure them to end their activity.
PEN considers Raúl Rivero to be detained in violation of his right
to freedom of expression and association as guaranteed by Articles 19 and
22 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and is
calling for his immediate and unconditional release.