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C O N F I D E N T I A L HAVANA 021636 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE DEPT FOR WHA/CCA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/19/2016 
TAGS: PHUM KDEM SOCI CU
SUBJECT: CUBAN MILITANTS PUMMEL INDEPENDENT LIBRARIANS 
 
REF: HAVANA 21100 
 
Classified By: COM Michael Parmly for Reason 1.4(d). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: Cuban communist militants brutally attacked 
two dissidents in Villa Clara province on October 10, the 
opening day of an extended "Congress" of independent 
librarians.  The attack, which lasted more than an hour and 
involved forcibly transporting the dissidents from one city 
to another, left a man of 53 and his wife, 39, with black 
eyes, deep bruises and cuts.  The man also suffered broken 
ribs; his wife had her trousers virtually ripped off.  Eight 
days after the attack, the two dissidents met with Poloff, 
showed their clearly visible wounds and described the 
harrowing incident.  They vowed to continue their peaceful 
opposition to the regime, and allowed the USG to disseminate 
their facial photos, taken following the attack. 
Unfortunately, theirs was not the only incident of repression 
marring the start of the four-and-a-half-month-long 
"Congress."  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (C) Orestes Suarez Torres, a welder whose dissident views 
cost him his job, and his wife, Nancy Gonzalez Garcia, a 
cigar roller, met with Poloff on October 18 and described a 
vicious October 10 attack that left them both bruised and 
battered.  Suarez and Gonzalez, who operate an independent 
library (illegal, in the regime's eyes) in Ranchuelo, Villa 
Clara province, said all was well until they left the Santa 
Clara home of dissident Noelia Pedraza, where an 
independent-librarian "Congress" event had attracted 11 
dissidents.  A large crowd of communist militants stood 
outside Pedraza's apartment building and staged an "act of 
repudiation."  When the dissidents left the building, they 
were allowed to walk toward a bus stop.  But en route, around 
12 militants grabbed Suarez and Gonzalez and forced them into 
two cars.  Inside one, three female militants yanked on 
Gonzalez's long hair and rained blows on her face, chest and 
legs.  Her trousers had been all but ripped off her body in 
the process of forcing her into the vehicle.  Inside the 
other car, five male militants took turns pounding Suarez. 
(Note: The victims told us they recognized one of the 
attackers: Yordanis Junco, a judo instructor at the National 
Sports Institute in Santa Clara.  We have added the name to 
USINT's list of "esbirros" -- henchmen -- implicated in human 
rights violations, and encourage Washington addresses to do 
the same.  End Note.) 
 
¶3. (C) The militants then drove the victims toward Ranchuelo, 
some 50 minutes away.  Stopping en route beside a stream, the 
attackers splashed water on the dissidents, removing some of 
the blood that had discolored their clothing.  Upon arriving 
in Ranchuelo, Suarez said, the militants parked their cars in 
front of the Communist Party headquarters, where First 
Secretary Wilfredo Hernandez Perez and State Security Major 
 
SIPDIS 
Jorge Luis Ojito looked on.  Suarez, whose upper right arm 
sports a large tattoo of Lady Liberty, said Maj. Ojito 
informed the victims that they were restricted to the city of 
Ranchuelo for one week.  Finally, the couple was driven home 
- only to find a crowd of some 80 people outside their home, 
staging an act of repudiation and yelling "Viva Fidel."  "All 
Party militants," explained Gonzalez.  After confiscating the 
victims' notebook, shoes and lighter, the militants let the 
dissidents enter their home. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶4. (C) Even by the abysmal human rights standards of Villa 
Clara province - where in the city of Manicaragua, most 
facilities and services are off-limits to dissidents -- the 
October 10 attack was egregious.  However, other ugly 
incidents tainted the start of the "Congress," organized by 
Martha Beatriz Roque's Assembly to Promote Civil Society.  In 
Havana, dissident and independent librarian Felix Bonne 
Carcassas was subjected to an act of repudiation, while in 
the Granma city of Bayamo, a State Security officer 
threatened to organize an act of repudiation against 
independent librarian Luis Daniel Silva, according to the 
Assembly.  We attribute the regime's aggressiveness in these 
cases to a desire to set an example in response to the most 
coordinated dissident activity since Fidel Castro's July 31 
incapacitation. 
 
¶5. (C) The married Ranchuelo couple have allowed us to 
disseminate their facial photos, taken after the attack.  We 
have transmitted the photos to WHA/CCA and are considering 
options for use on the island. 
PARMLY