http://www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org
WikiLeaks: Mob Attacks Librarians
NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2012 (Friends of Cuban Libraries) - INTRODUCTION: In
2006 the Friends of Cuban Libraries webpage published a brief article on a mob
attack directed against Orestes Suárez Torres and Nancy González García,
independent librarians living in rural Ranchuelo, Villa Clara province.
A Google search of WikiLeaks documents has now disclosed a lengthy
confidential memo on this subject by Michael Parmly, the chief U.S. diplomat in
Havana. The confidential 2006 memo, an excerpt of which is published below,
discloses grim new details on the government-directed attack on Suárez and
González and the injuries they suffered.
So far as we know, this press release by The Friends of Cuban Libraries is
the first article drawing attention to this WikiLeaks memo.
To see the diplomats' photos of the facial injuries inflicted on Suarez and
Gonzalez, go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45759814@N06/4199660251/
Here are excerpts from the newly-discovered WikiLeaks disclosure, with a
link to the full text at the end of the memo:
"Subject: CUBAN MILITANTS PUMMEL INDEPENDENT LIBRARIANS
"Origin: U.S. Interests Section Havana (Cuba)
"Cable time: Thurs., 10 Oct 2006
"Classification: CONFIDENTIAL...
"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... 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....
"Orestes Suarez Torres, a welder whose dissident views cost him his job,
and his wife Nancy Gonzalez Garcia, a cigar roller, met with Pol[itical]
off[icer] on October 18 and described a vicious October 10 attack that left them
both bruised and battered. Suarez and Gonzalez... operate an independent
library (illegal, in the regime's eyes)... [When Orestes Suarez and Nancy
Gonzalez left the Oct. 10 librarians' congress in Santa Clara] a large crowd of
communist militants stood outside and staged an 'act of repudiation'...
[A]round 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... Inside the other car, five male
militants took turns pounding Suarez...
"The militants then drove the victims toward Ranchuelo... Stopping en route
beside a stream, the attackers splashed water on the dissidents, removing
some of the blood that had discolored their clothing.... 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."
While writing this memo and viewing the "clearly visible wounds" inflicted
on the two librarians, diplomat Michael Parmly noted that Orestes Suárez and
Nancy González "vowed to continue their peaceful opposition to the
regime...."
SOURCE: http://wikileaks.org/cable/2006/10/06HAVANA21636.html
Kindle Users Arrested in Havana
HAVANA, Aug. 24, 2012 (Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez/Hablemos Press) - On
Friday the Cuban secret police pursued and arrested librarians who had
attended a technology workshop at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
[Note by the Friends of Cuban Libraries: the Obama administration recently
enacted a program to donate hi-tech equipment such as Kindle e-book readers
to Cuba's independent librarians and other activists. This move greatly
expands Cubans' access to banned materials and evades the occasional seizure of
bulky printed materials carried in the baggage of volunteers arriving at
Cuban airports.]
The arrests occurred in the streets adjacent to the Interests Section when
the librarians, about 20 in number, were returning to their homes.
"The workshop in which we were participating was on how to use an Amazon
Kindle," commented Lázara Mijan, who was able to escape the police roundup,
together with Magaly Norvis Otero and Julio Beltrán.
Among the detainees are Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna, Julio Rojas Portal and
Mario Echevarría Driggs. Two Kindles were confiscated from each of the latter
two persons, in addition to cameras, personal documents and user manuals
for the Kindle DX....
"The police operation was big, very big. Many State Security agents were
scattered in Ladas [Soviet-era cars] and motorcycles everywhere in the streets
near the Interests Section; it was a miracle that some of the librarians
were able to evade arrest," said Driggs, after he was released from
custody....
The Cuban regime classifies the independent librarians and dissidents as
counterrevolutionaries at the service of the U.S. government. In 2003, more
than 20 librarians were arrested and sentenced to prison terms of between 5
and 20 years, and their library collections were confiscated and burned.
POSTSCRIPT: In a related incident, Alejandro Tur Valladares reports that on
Sept. 4 independent librarian Eduardo Ramos López, while using a public
telephone in Cienfuegos, was forced into a police car (license plate number:
FDD 154) and taken to the local State Security office, where the two Kindles
in his possession were confiscated. He was booked on a charge of "subversive
activities" and released. Ramos López rejects the charge made against him
by the secret police and said he would demand the return of the seized
Kindles.
Sources:
(http://www.cihpress.com/2012/08/arrestan-bibliotecarios-independientes-html),
(http://www.cubanet.org/noticias/detienen-a-bibliotecario-independiente-en-cienfuegos)
Indie Libraries: "An Exercise in Obscurity, Persecution"
BOSTON, July 3, 2012 (Public Radio International) - With travel
restrictions easing, more Americans can go and see Cuba themselves....
[Officially-approved used booksellers in Havana's Plaza de Armas] are part
of Cuba's state-controlled book world. There are no independent
bookshops.... Books are curated by the government....
But there is a flip side: a small literary underground, led by defiant
Cubans with private libraries and e-books swapped on flash drives....
In another part of Havana, Gisela Delgado, a computer technician [and
director of Cuba's Independent Library movement], runs a private library from her
small apartment. In 2003, the government cracked down and jailed 75 of the
island's dissidents, including independent librarians. Delgado was spared,
but remains monitored....
For the government, the sore spot is how books get here: through
foreigners, from exiled Cubans and sympathetic diplomats....
And what the Cuban government deems inappropriate is arbitrary. When state
police raided her library during the 2003 dissident crackdown, Delgado
remembers asking agents how a book by Gabriel García Márquez could be
confiscated.
They said, "The problem isn't the title of the book. It's you," she
recalled....
"Cuban publishing houses would like to have more titles," [said Rafael
Hernández, a government official.] "The main problem is the money."
Delgado, the librarian, doesn't buy that. Money will not put books critical
of the Cuban government on the shelves, she said.
At issue is what her books surely symbolize: a thorn in the government's
side, dissent - and support from the outside world.
Source:
http://www.pri.org/stories/politics-society/maintaining-a-library-in-cuba-an-excercise-in-obscurity-persecution-10526.html
Internet Radio Interview: Cuba's Indie Libraries
HOUSTON, March 17, 2012 (Silvio Canto) - For an online blog radio interview
with Robert Kent on the subject of Cuba's independent library movement, go
to:
www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2012/03/17/today's-message
