CUBA
 
[Update on Rapid Action 7/13/10, Rapid Action 7/23/10, Rapid Action 8/18/10, Rapid Action 8/25/10, Rapid Action 9/29/10, and Rapid Action 2/15/11]

PEN International welcomes the release of independent journalist and librarian Iván Hernández Carrillo on February 19, 2011, after nearly eight years' imprisonment. Hernández, like Héctor Fernando Maseda Gutiérrez, who was freed February 12, has been allowed to remain in Cuba under a special parole program; the 18 writers freed last year were all exiled to Spain as a precondition of their release. PEN calls on the Cuban government to make Hernández’s and the other writers' release unconditional and to free the remaining three journalists and librarians in jail immediately and unconditionally.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Iván Hernández Carrillo, journalist (Patria or Fatherland independent news agency) and independent librarian (Juan Gualberto Gómez Library), was released on February 19, 2011, and allowed to return to his home in western Matanzas province.

Hernández, 39, is the 20th of the writers, independent journalists, and librarians jailed during a March 2003 government crackdown on dissidents to be freed under a deal brokered by the Catholic Church and the Spanish foreign ministry in July 2010. However, he is only the second to be allowed to remain in Cuba under a special parole program; the first was Héctor Fernando Maseda Gutiérrez, who was freed on February 12. The 18 writers, independent journalists, and librarians released between July and September 2010 were all forced to accept exile in Spain.

Following his release, Hernández said in an interview with Agence France-Presse: “I am free. I will keep writing, as I did from prison and as I will now from the street. I will write of the events that affect ordinary Cubans.”

However, local human rights activists have expressed concern that the special parole program under which Hernández and Maseda have been freed will be used to maintain control over political prisoners after their release. Moreover, none of the 20 freed writers’ prison sentences (in Hernández’s case, 25 years in total with 17 remaining) have been lifted.

With Hernández’s release, there are now a total of three independent journalists and librarians still imprisoned in Cuba. Pedro Argüelles Morán (Cooperative of Independent Avileña Journalists) and Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodríguez (20 de Mayo Library), both jailed since March 2003, have reportedly not yet been released because, like Maseda and Hernández, they have refused to leave the country as a precondition of that release. Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández (Habana Press) was imprisoned in April 2009.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS...

• Welcoming the release of independent journalist and librarian Iván Hernández Carrillo and the Cuban government’s decision to allow him to remain in Cuba;

• Expressing concern, however, that Hernández has been released on parole and calling for his prison sentence to be overturned immediately;

• Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the three independent journalists and librarians still detained in violation of their right to freedom of expression, two of whom have been imprisoned since 2003.
 
SEND APPEALS TO...
Raúl Castro Ruz
Head of State and Government
Presidente
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +537 833 3085 (via Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Or (212) 779-1697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Email: cuba@un.int (c/o Cuban Mission to UN)
Salutation: Su Excelencia/Your Excellency

General Abelardo Coloma Ibarra
Interior Minister
Ministro del Interior y Prisiones
Ministerio del Interior, Plaza de la Revolución
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +537 833 3085 (via Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Or (212) 779-1697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Salutation: Señor Ministro / Dear Minister

Please send appeals to the diplomatic representative for Cuba in your country if possible.

Please send appeals immediately. Contact PEN if sending appeals after April 23, 2011: ftw@pen.org

RELATED LINKS

>> PEN's letter of appeal for Héctor Fernando Maseda Gutiérrez and Iván Hernández Carrillo