Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Communist-Style Book Burning & Censorship in Cuba


Moneda Dura's video "mala leche" banned by the Cuban government

Books Known to Have Been Burned in Cuba in 2003

As verified in the sentencing documents posted by

the Rule of Law in Cuba web site at the

Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights,

at http://www.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu/


Prepared By Steve Marquardt,PH.D.

Trial of Guido Sigler Amaya, in Matanzas, 5 April 2003 [Sentence number 9], official document available here

“… the handwritten, typed, printed, signed and recorder [sic] documents which are also detailed in prior paragraphs … will be immediately destroyed by incineration.”

From the original court record:
“. . . excepto los documentos manuscritos, mecanografiados, impresos y firmados y grabados los cuales también se detallan con antelación serán destruido mediante su incineración oportuna.”

These include the following:

“several copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” One hardcover edition of the UDHR is published by Applewood Books (November 1, 2000). 32 pages. ISBN: 1557094551. Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com


El resurgimiento global de la democracia. Unknown Binding: 341 pages. Publisher: Insituto de Investigaciones Sociales, UNAM; 1. ed edition (1996) Language: Spanish. ISBN: 9683649904. Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com


Vista del amanecer en el trópico, by Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Paperback) Publisher: Penguin Books (March 1, 1997).ISBN: 0140262865. Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com
[English translation: View of Dawn in the Tropics, by G. Cabrera Infante. Translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine. (London: Faber, 1988) First U.K. Edition. Source for bibliographic description: Alibris.com]


Hacia la gran nación, by Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat (Miami, Fl : D'Fana Editions, 1995), 32 p. ; 21 cm. Source for bibliographic description: OCLC WorldCat


Letters from Burma, by George Orwell.

Trial of Julio Antonio Vales Guevara, in Santiago de Cuba, 5 April 2003. Case no. 5 of 2003. Available here.

“… books, magazines, brochures and the rest of the documents to proceed to destruction by means of incineration for lacking utility; …”


From the original court record:
Se dispone que sobre el negativo fotográfico, el cassete de audio, las medicinas, los libros, revistas, folletos y el resto de los documentos procédase a su destrucción mediante incineración por carecer de utilidad; . . .”

These include the following:

TIME (magazine)
El Disidente (magazine)
Fragura (“news serial … edited in the United States”)
Por Cuba (“news serial … edited in the United States”)
Palestra (“journal … edited in the United States”)
Hispano Cubana (magazine “published in Spain”)

José Martí: la invención de Cuba, by Rafael Rojas. (Paperback) Editorial Colibri (November 20, 2000), 145 pages. ISBN: 8492355069
Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

Cuba's Repressive Machinery: Human Rights Forty Years After the Revolution, by Human Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch, July 20, 1999). Paperback, 263 pages). ISBN: 1564322343. Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

Buscando un modelo económico en América Latina : mercado, socialista o mixta? : Chile, Cuba y Costa Rica, by Carmelo Mesa-Lago; Alberto Arenas; Malena Barro (Caracas, Venezuela : Nueva Sociedad ; [Miami?, Fla.] : Universidad Internacional de la Florida, 2002 1. ed. en castellano.
681 p. ; ISBN: 9803171836 23 cm. Source for bibliographic description: OCLC WorldCat

Trial of Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodriguez, in Sancti Spiritus (#1), 5 April 2003. Available here.

“Also the destruction is had [of] …”
sixteen books Encounter of the Culture Cuban [etc.]”
Book titles are machine translated from the Spanish as follows:
Encounter of Cuban Culture
Plowing in the Sea
Heating of the Planet
Uses and Abuses of Gasoline
World without Winter
Visual Atlas [of the] Ocean
Destruction of Nature and the Ecology
System of Environmental Average Management

Conquering Nature: The Environmental Legacy of Socialism in Cuba, by Sergio Diaz-Briquets and Jorge F. Perez-Lopez. (Pitt Latin American Series) University of Pittsburgh Press (April 1, 2000) (Paperback, 328 pages). ISBN: 0822957213
Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

“Classic texts of Carlos Franqui” "Textos clasicos sobre la revolucion y el socialismo".
(Dominican Republic, 1998). According to Senor Franqui, "This book is an anthology of classical European and American texts by several authors, and was anonymously edited by Carlos Franqui" (This information from a personal communication with the author)

The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe, by Vaclav Havel (M. E. Sharpe; Paperback Reprint edition, June 1, 1990). ISBN: 0873327616. Source for bibliographic description: Amazon.com

Reporters Without Borders, Mission report in Cuba. Probably this is the September 2000 report found at http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=3213.

Trial of Felix Navarro Rodriguez and Ivan Hernandez Carrillo, in Matanzas, 4 April 2003.
Sentence number 2 of 2003, available here.

“printed material and other that have films and recording will be immediately destroy [sic] by incineration, which it will also be done with the handwritten and typed documents …”
From the original court record:
“Los materiales impresos y otros que tienen filmaciones y grabaciones serán destruidos mediante su incineración oportuna.”

These include the following:

81 pamphlet(s) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

El Proyecto Varela by Alberto Muller [and] Oswaldo Payá (Miami, FL : Ediciones Universal, 2002 1st ed.). Spanish. Book 110 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
ISBN: 0897299981. Source for bibliographic description: OCLC WorldCat

Trial of Pedro Arguelles Moran and Pable Pacheco Avila, in Ciego de Avila, 4 April 2003, available here

“all the publications that include books, magazines and pamphlets, to give to the Department of the Interior for its destruction.”
From the original court record:
“El instrumental estomatológico, entregarse al Sectorial Provincial de Salud de Camagüey, así como los medicamentos; todas las publicaciones que incluyen libros, revistas y folletos, entregar al Ministerio del Interior para su destrucción. Todos los equipos y medios electrónicos, entregar al Ministerio del Interior, ya que su complejidad técnica no hace que sea prudente su empleo en ninguna otra actividad.”

These include the following, as listed in the sentencing document:
Jose Martí, The Invention of Cuba
book "Letters to Elpidio";
book Conquista of the Nature;
book Your Body is Yours;
book Contemporary Universal History;
history of the United States;
book the Cost of the Terrorism in Human Suffering;
book Foundations of the Media;
book Technical of Education of the Media;
book Journalism and Creativity;
two books of International Human rights;
book a More Effective and Less Expensive Government;
book History of the United States;
book titled Manual for the Journalists;
book Evidence that demands a Verdict;
titled book EI Viaje de Juan Pablo II;
two books of the Declaration of Independence of the United States
book the Constitution of the United States;
6 declarations of the Human rights;
two universal declarations of the Human rights;
a pamphlet of the Project Varela.


Trial of Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos and Carmelo Augustín Diaz Fernandez, in Havana, 5 April 2003, available here

“As far as documents, magazines, notes, books, agendas, photos, invitations, stickers, propagandas, procédase to their destruction.
From the original court record:
“En cuanto a los documentos, revistas, apuntes, libros, agendas, fotos, invitaciones, pegatinas, propagandas, procédase a su destrucción.”

These included the following:
“.
. . books, bulletins magazines, agendas, booksellers of notes, all of subversive content
abundant documents, books, correspondence, notes, pamphlets and magazines of content in opposition to the principles of the Cuban Revolution . . .

“With same aim of destruction of regime partner-political prevailing in Cuba, defendant created library "Emilio Maspero" which it contained subversive Literature and contrarrevolucionaria, that was provided by the government and competing groups of the Cuban Revolution, also they created a Web site for the publication of his contrarrevolucionarios postulates the one that could be visited by people of different parts from the world.”

From the original court record:
“Con el mismo fin de destrucción del régimen socio-político imperante en Cuba, los acusados crearon la biblioteca “Emilio Maspero” que contenía literatura subversiva y contrarrevolucionaria, que era suministrada por el gobierno y grupos opositores de la Revolución cubana, asimismo crearon un sitio web para la publicación de sus postulados contrarrevolucionarios el que podía ser visitado por personas de diferentes partes del mundo.”

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