Against the Current, No. 23, November/December 1989
ATC Editors WHILE THE NICARAGUAN government prepares the country’s second genuine
national elections, the Cuban government—under far less unfavorable
objective conditions than those of Nicaragua—is moving in exactly the
opposite direction.
On July 13, after a trial that clearly did not meet internationally
recognized minimum standards of due process—in which, for example,
government-appointed defense attorneys only engaged in the most
perfunctory efforts on behalf of the accused—four high ranking officials
of the Cuban armed forces and Interior Ministry accused of drug
trafficking were executed.
The following month, the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party
officially prohibited the circulation in Cuba of the Soviet publications
Moscow News and Sputnik. According to the Cuban CP, these Soviet
journals “create the impression that the USSR has been left without a
history those who do not have a deep knowledge of the history of the
USSR will be pained to think of seventy lost years. Those who are not
firmly convinced of the historic necessity and possibilities of
socialism, may end up doubting its viability and even lose hope … Those
who dream of its overthrow will applaud and collaborate … These
publications negate previous history and create chaos out of the present
Shield-mg themselves behind the inevitable diversity of opinions,
formulas are disseminated that encourage anarchy.”
In the early morning of August 6, three human rights activists were
arrested in Havana and many of their personal documents and belongings
seized. Among them was Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban
Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation. These activists
were charged with having committed the crime of disseminating false
news” (Article 115 of the Criminal Code) in discussing with foreign
reporters the previously mentioned trial of the high ranking Cuban
officers. State prosecutors have requested a four-year term (the maximum
under the law the activists are charged with breaking) for Elizardo
Sanchez and three years for the other two, according to reports in the
Cuban party paper Granma (Spanish-language edition).
More recently Orlando Polo, leader of a small group of
Green-Ecological-Pacifist activists (a nuclear power plant is nearing
completion not far from Cienfuegos in central Cuba), was arrested after
he appealed and protested the closure and seizure of the contents of the
office he ran at his home. At this point, the rest of his dwelling was
also shut down by the authorities. He was later released but
subsequently rearrested.
Against the Current, a journal that since our inception has extended our
solidarity to the people of Latin America against the interference of
U.S. imperialism in the internal affairs of their countries, views with
alarm these recent actions of the Cuban government. We oppose the
peacetime application of the death penalty and the absence of due
process. We also abhor the censorship of ideas and the imprisonment of
people for what are clearly crimes of opinion.
While members of our editorial board hold differing assessments,
positive and negative, of the social and political system that has
emerged from the Cuban Revolution, we all are shocked by the manner in
which the Ocho/de la Guardia trial was conducted and by the information
so far released about the arrests of human rights activists, and by the
Cuban government’s attitude of official silence, at best, toward the
Chinese events It is true that Cuba continues to face many hardships due
to the outrageous attempts of the U.S. government to isolate it, but
everything we have learned from socialist history indicates that
infringements on democratic rights of the population and repression of
dissenting ideas only blocks any potential socialist direction.
We demand the immediate and unconditional release, and dropping of any
charges against Elizardo Sanchez, Hiram Abi Cobas, Hubert Jerez Marino,
Orlando Polo and any others who may have been similarly victimized. We
join Amnesty International, Americas Watch and other independent human
rights organizations in requesting that as many individuals and
organizations as possible communicate their support for this demand to:
Su Excelencia Commandante en Jefe, Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz, Presidente de
la Republica y Presidente de los Consejos de Estado y de Ministros,
Ciudad de la Habana, CUBA. © 2020 Against the Current November-December 1989, ATC 23