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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HAVANA 009846 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/08/2016 
TAGS: PHUM PREL KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: ROADTRIP BY CANADIAN POLOFF YIELDS HUMAN RIGHTS 
INSIGHTS 
 
 
HAVANA 00009846  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Classified By: COM Michael Parmly for Reason 1.4(d). 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary: Canadian Poloff Ram Kamineni, who covers 
human rights, briefed us May 5 on his recent weeklong 
road-trip to the cities of Camaguey, Las Tunas, Manicaragua, 
Puerto Padre, Santa Clara and Santiago.  Kamineni met dozens 
of pro-democracy activists and "Ladies in White" (relatives 
of political prisoners).  He says hunger-striking dissident 
Guillermo Farinas is predicting his own death by the end of 
July.  Santiago was a virtual ghost town, with a heavy police 
presence and many nightspots closed, apparently following 
drug raids.  In Puerto Padre, Kamineni says, the "Ladies in 
White" play a central role in the dissident community, while 
in Las Tunas, one embattled "Lady" is keeping her kids home 
for their own protection.  Camaguey felt more open and free 
than other Cuban cities, but Kamineni says he "couldn't wait" 
to get back to Havana. With few exceptions, USINT officers 
are forbidden to travel outside Havana's city limits.  End 
Summary. 
 
¶2. (C) Canadian Third Secretary Ram Kamineni shared with us 
May 5 his experiences following a week-long road trip to the 
cities of Camaguey, Santa Clara, Manicaragua, Puerto Padre, 
Las Tunas and Santiago.  Kamineni said he justified the trip 
by attending a Canadian event in Camaguey at the start of the 
week, then drove southeast.  In Santa Clara, in the central 
province of Villa Clara, Kamineni arrived at the hospital 
where Guillermo Farinas, the dissident journalist, has since 
January 31 waged a hunger strike for Internet access for all 
Cubans.  The hospital staff told him they were busy and 
suggested he return another day.  Kamineni then traveled to 
the home of Farinas' mother, who called Farinas and informed 
him of the situation.  Farinas then prodded the staff to let 
Kamineni in.  The journalist, looking not so much "emaciated" 
as "thin," appeared strong in spirit and conviction, the 
Canadian said.  Farinas predicted he would not survive past 
July, but Kamineni doubted that the dissident was close to 
death, adding that "the IV can probably keep him going for a 
long time."  He called Farinas a "rallying point" for the 
dissident community in Villa Clara. 
 
"LADIES IN WHITE" PLAY KEY ROLE 
------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) In Puerto Padre, Las Tunas province, Kamineni found 
that the "Ladies in White" and their supporters play a 
unifying role in the dissident community.  He met with a 
dozen Ladies and other activists during a visit to the Santa 
Ana church.  One Lady shed light on the circumstances in 
which she was prevented from traveling to Havana in mid-March 
to mark the third anniversary of the Black Spring crackdown, 
in which 75 peaceful dissidents were jailed.  She succeeded 
in boarding a bus toward Havana, but en route, the bus was 
surrounded by police cars.  The Lady then "got her own little 
motorcade back to Puerto Padre," Kamineni said.  In the city 
of Las Tunas, meanwhile, a solitary Lady, Gisela Verdecia 
Garcia, is under intense pressure for her activities.  The 
wife of Reinaldo Labrada, a member of Oswaldo Paya's 
Christian Liberation Movement, lives in "a fortress," 
according to Kamineni.  He said Verdecia "keeps her kids 
hidden at home all the time" because several people have 
mentioned her dissident activities and then asked, 'You love 
your children, right?" 
 
SANTIAGO A "GHOST TOWN" 
----------------------- 
 
¶4. (C) Santiago de Cuba, the Canadian said, felt more like a 
ghost town than southern Cuba's biggest city.  Kamineni was 
there on a Friday night and found "police on every street 
corner," which he speculated had more to do with crime than 
anything else.  In the city center, he said, the number of 
nightclubs had dropped from 50 or so to around 10. "I heard 
that the authorities are cracking down on drugs by closing 
any establishment where drugs are found during a raid." 
 
STATUS QUO IN MANICARAGUA 
------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Kamineni also visited the Villa Clara city of 
Manicaragua, where he met with around a dozen pro-democracy 
activists who reiterated what we had heard about local 
transport facilities, restaurants and other venues being 
placed off-limits to dissidents.  Kamineni said that, 
regrettably, he was unable to confirm or refute these 
assertions.  In Camaguey, he was impressed with the 
considerable freedom the city's residents have, he said.  "At 
night, the whole city center opens up and people seem fairly 
 
HAVANA 00009846  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
free; there's a good vibe."  Nevertheless, he said, "I 
couldn't wait to get back to Havana." 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶6. (C) These vignettes reinforce our sense that, as run-down 
as Havana has become, poverty and crumbling infrastructure 
are even worse in the interior.  Additionally, the different 
strands of the dissident movement that sometimes compete for 
attention and leadership in Havana, tend to work more 
cooperatively against the regime in the provinces. 
PARMLY