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C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 009469 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/05/2016 
TAGS: PHUM PREL KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: CUBA HUMAN RIGHTS ROUNDUP 
 
REF: A. HAVANA 9060 
 
     ¶B. HAVANA 8986 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Alex Lee for Reason 1.4(d). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  Leading Cuban dissident Martha Beatriz Roque 
is recovering after being roughed up by Communist militants 
outside her home.  Roque, weary but defiant, met with COM 
April 29 and expressed pleasure with the wide media coverage 
of the incident and subsequent foreign-government attention. 
Roque says she had heard that ousted Politburo member Juan 
Carlos Robinson Agramonte is being held at a notorious State 
Security prison.  Meanwhile, a dissident doctor who was 
recently detained by police says GOC guards posted outside 
USINT signed a declaration against him.  The "Ladies in 
White" have planned a Mother's Day activity.  Independent 
journalists had little to celebrate on World Press Freedom 
Day.  Hunger-striking dissident Guillermo Farinas says GOC 
agents have revised his academic file and lowered his GPA. 
Fabio Prieto Llorente, one of the 75 dissidents jailed in 
March 2003, has been placed in a punishment cell. 
Twenty-five dissidents held a recent vigil that was not 
raided or even disrupted by the GOC.  A Presbyterian minister 
told us why you've gotta watch what you say.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (C) Leading pro-democracy activist Martha Beatriz Roque 
met with the COM on April 29, three days after Communist 
militants outside her home left her red and bruised, with a 
ripped skirt.  The mob prevented her from participating in a 
USINT-organized videoconference.  Roque, defiant, vowed to 
continue her activities, and reveled in the attention from 
the French, Polish and other Embassies that sent 
representatives, flowers or both.  Roque said she had 
received 400 expressions of concern, and expressed 
satisfaction over the considerable media coverage generated 
by the attack.  Roque told the COM she had inside information 
on the fate of Juan Carlos Robinson Agramonte, the Politburo 
member booted on April 28 for improper conduct and attitude. 
Roque said a member of the Central Committee of the Communist 
Party (CP) had informed a confidant of Roque's that Robinson 
is being held at Villa Marista, the State Security prison 
modeled after the KGB's Lubyanka, and designed to break the 
spirit.  "Robinson must have done something wrong," she said, 
comparing him to a senior Sugar Ministry official who, years 
ago, publicly called the GOC's production targets 
unrealistic. "The guy, Borrego, was fired, and called a 
failure.  He learned you can't say that kind of thing." 
 
DISSIDENT DOCTOR DETAINED 
------------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) The day before militants assaulted Roque, others held 
an "act of repudiation" at the home of dissident doctor Darsi 
Ferrer.  Ferrer was unscathed, but on April 26, after 
visiting one of USINT's Internet Centers, he was picked up by 
a patrol car and taken, without explanation, to a police 
station.  Ferrer told us he was placed in a cell near the 
station's entrance, and to his surprise, in walked three 
members of SEPSA, the GOC embassy "protection" force, all 
assigned to posts near USINT (where they inspect the papers 
of would-be visitors).  He said each guard signed a sheet of 
paper and then left.  Later, Ferrer said, when he was being 
moved within the police station, he was able to look at the 
document in question.  He said it is a declaration that 
accuses the doctor of publicly disrespecting Fidel Castro at 
the SEPSA post -- an assertion Ferrer denies.  Ferrer was 
warned he'd be taken to Villa Marista, but was freed. 
 
"LADIES IN WHITE" PLAN MAY 14 ACTION 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶4. (C) Leading "Lady in White" Laura Pollan told us on May 3 
that her group, joint winners of the 2005 Sakarov Prize, 
plans to hold a special activity on Mother's Day, May 14. 
Before attending Mass and carrying out their weekly march 
calling for the liberation of their political-prisoner loved 
ones, the Ladies intend to lay flowers at the Monument to 
Leonor Perez, the mother of national hero Jose Marti. Last 
Mother's Day, as the Ladies marched in front of Santa Rita 
church, a large, GOC-directed group of female 
counter-protestors confronted the Ladies.  This time, Pollan 
said, they'll hold the activity before Mass to throw off the 
GOC. 
 
HAPPY PRESS-FREEDOM DAY 
----------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Cuba's independent journalists had little reason to 
celebrate World Press Freedom Day on May 3.  They continued 
to suffer harassment, intimidation and physical attacks.  In 
Ciego de Avila, Jose Manuel Caraballo was recently punched in 
the street by an unknown person.  The assailant smashed 
Caraballo's camera and warned him that he would be destroyed 
just like his camera.  In Havana, Roberto Santana recently 
received an invitation to attend a videoconference organized 
by USINT.  State Security officials met with him and told him 
that if he were to even leave his house on the day of the 
event, there would be "grave physical consequences." Also in 
Havana, State Security recently detained, interrogated and 
threatened journalist Luis Cino. 
 
FARINAS FILE 
------------ 
 
¶6. (C) Hunger-striking independent journalist Guillermo 
Farinas, now up to Day 94 of his hunger strike, remained 
hospitalized in Santa Clara and hooked up to an IV, but was 
not beyond the reach of the GOC.  Farinas said State Security 
agents recently visited his alma mater, the Superior 
Institute of Health Sciences, and tinkered with his file. 
Consequently, Farinas said, his GPA has gone from a 4.51 (on 
the 1-5 scale) to 4.  In this way, he was stripped of his 
status as a former "exemplary student." 
 
POLITICAL PRISONER IN PUNISHMENT CELL 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (C) Political prisoner Fabio Prieto Llorente, serving 20 
years for "acts against the independence or territorial 
integrity of the state," has been placed in a punishment 
cell, according to his sister.  The sister, a "Lady in White" 
who recently visited Prieto at the Guayabo prison on the Isle 
of Youth, explained that he was served food on a filthy tray 
and asked for a clean one.  The next day, Prieto, 43, was 
punched in the eye by a fellow inmate, in front of a guard 
who took no action.  The same day, Prieto was sent to a 
punishment cell.  His sister said he remains in good spirits 
but is suffering from emphysema, stomach woes and other 
ailments.  The sister, for her part, was "completely 
strip-searched" on her way out of the prison by female guards 
"in order to humiliate me."  The family's home in Nueva 
Gerona was subjected to a 100-person "act of repudiation" on 
March 18, the third anniversary of the Black Spring 
crackdown.  The sister said only about 20 in the crowd were 
actively participating; some were drinking, shouting 
profanities, and exposing their backsides. 
 
VIGIL HELD FOR RELEASE OF POL PRISONERS 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) Political prisoners were on the minds of 15 dissidents 
who took part in an April 28 vigil at the home of dissident 
Aurelio Bachiller.  The organizer, Carlos Serpa, said 
participants called for the immediate release of all 
political prisoners and detainees.  Serpa told us no arrests 
were made and that the event was undisturbed.  Participants 
included members of two outlawed labor unions: the 
Independent National Workers Conference (CUNI) and the Union 
of Independent Light Industry Workers (SITIL). 
 
PRESBYTERIAN LEADER: ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶9. (C) The Rev. Hector Mendez of the Presbyterian Reformed 
Church shared concerns about GOC intimidation of churches and 
clergy members, but acknowledged that he was afraid to speak 
too frankly.  In 1990s, he explained, members of the NGO Pax 
Christi came to Havana, met with him, told him the 
discussions were off the record, and subsequently published 
materials that made clear he was the source.  The regime, 
Mendez said, was not amused.  He did not describe the 
reprisals. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶10.  Cuba's long-suffering activists continue to pay the 
price for Fidel Castro's zero-tolerance policy on dissent. We 
are bracing for a surge in GOC repression following the May 
20 announcement of CAFC measures.  Closer to home, we are 
wondering what prompted the GOC to deny, on May 3, exit 
permission to Flora Figueroa, USINT's Cuban nurse who was to 
travel to a health conference in Baltimore.  She had traveled 
before to the United States on USINT-related medical business 
more than once.  The Cuban Health Ministry allegedly told her 
it saw "no need" for her to travel at this time. 
LEE