Amnesty International at 60: Are they staying the course or has mission creep led them astray from their founder?

 We remember

On the 28th of May 1961 an article appeared in The Observer that captured the imagination of people around the world. This text was taken from an Amnesty statement on the 50th anniversary and adapted for the 60th.

Written by London lawyer Peter Benenson, The Forgotten Prisoners called for an international campaign for the release of thousands of people who had been jailed because of their political or religious beliefs. They were given the name ‘prisoners of conscience.’That call for justice a six decades ago was the birth of Amnesty International, a human rights group which has since grown into a global organization with over three million supporters in 150 countries. In recognition of their human rights campaigning, in 1977 they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

[...]

Peter Benenson said that the impetus for The Forgotten Prisoners was a newspaper article he read about two students jailed for seven years in dictator Antonio Salazar’s Portugal simply for raising their glasses and toasting freedom. At the time he said he wanted to “mobilise world opinion” about the human rights abuses being committed by governments around the world against those citizens whose opinions differed to theirs.

Amnesty International's first meeting where it came into existence in London in July 1961 with Peter Benenson and six other men that included a Conservative, a Liberal, and a Labour Member of Parliament. It was an initiative that had a broad consensus, but that has changed over the past six decades.

The Left's take over of human rights discourse over the past decades to advance its own agenda has benefited it but at the expense of the pre-existing international human rights consensus. For example, Amnesty International's campaign beginning in 2007 to conflate the right to an abortion with its worldwide campaign to stop violence against women alienated many Catholic supporters, and has been described as anti-Catholic. 

Catholic bishops, who had been members of Amnesty International, resigned over the abortion issue because the human rights group had become an abortion lobby group. Catholics generally have been encouraged to boycott the organization. Independent Catholic News reported:

Cardinal Martino, who served as the Holy See's permanent observer at the United Nations, says that this change of position is part of the "pro-death" agenda in modern culture. The cardinal said that Amnesty International's decision means Catholics and Catholic organizations should no longer financially support the group. "The promotion of abortion opens the door to the slippery slope of evil and death, where human rights are taken away from the most innocent and vulnerable children of God," he said. "I believe that, if in fact Amnesty International persists in this course of action, individuals and Catholic organizations must withdraw their support."

Furthermore Article Three of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the right to life, and this is not accidental. This is because this human rights document drafted and signed on December 10, 1948 was not a compromise between liberalism and socialism but lobbied for and drafted by Christian Democrats with the active support of the Catholic Church and all the world's great faith traditions.

Jacques Maritain

Catholic roots of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Pope John Paul II recalled the Roman Catholic Church's role in 1991 in the Papal Encyclical Centesimus Annus published on the 100th anniversary of Rerum Novarum:

...[A]fter the Second World War, and in reaction to its horrors, there arose a more lively sense of human rights, which found recognition in a number of International Documents⁵² and, one might say, in the drawing up of a new "right of nations", to which the Holy See has constantly contributed. The focal point of this evolution has been the United Nations Organization.

One of the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was Jacques Maritain, a French philosopher who was a profound Catholic and anti-modernist inspired by Christian humanism:

There is but one solution for the history of the world, I mean in a Christian regime, however it may be otherwise. It is that the creature be truly respected in its connection with God and because receiving everything from Him: humanism but theocentric humanism, rooted where man has his roots, integral humanism, humanism of the incarnation.

The formation of the United Nations was an opportunity for Latin Americans to push for international human rights standards. The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man was the first international human rights instrument signed into existence in Bogota, Colombia on May 2, 1948 eight months prior to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December of 1948 where Latin Americans played a major and crucial role, among them the Cuban delegation. The first draft of the Declaration was fashioned from various models collected by the UN Secretariat among them "a model based on a Cuban-sponsored proposal at the San Francisco conference, a proposed first draft offered by the Chilean delegation, and the earlier Panamanian draft."

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is heavily informed and influenced by Catholic social doctrine found in the 1891 Papal Encyclical Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII. The Catholic Church in its social teaching rejects both liberalism and communism embracing a defense of the dignity of human beings grounded in its own metaphysical vision of personhood that began to be formulated in the Middle Ages, and developed into a universal concept in the 1500s.

Bishop Bartolomé De Las Casas

The holistic approach to human rights that embraces both civil/political and social/economic rights was not found in a compromise between the liberal Anglosphere and the socialist Soviet sphere but was the initiative of Catholic thinkers, states and the Holy See that shaped this important document that was embraced by the major faiths around the world that shared its common truths achieving a unanimous human rights consensus with that document.

This is all the more ironic because the founder of Amnesty, Peter Benenson, "in 1958, he underwent a conversion to Roman Catholicism, and his new faith became a dominant influence in his life. He ceased to look to politics for a solution to the world's problems, and concluded that the answers lay in individual regeneration", reported The Guardian on his passing in February 2005.

 

This is not a performance: Cuban artist and dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara kidnapped and tortured by Castro dictatorship for 20 days

“Luis Manuel must not spend one more day under state custody. He has been detained solely because of his consciously held beliefs and must be released immediately and unconditionally. It is time for the Cuban authorities to recognize that they cannot silence all the independent voices in the country,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

Concept taken from Norges Rodriguez

 

Today, May 22, 2021, marks 20 days since state security agents forced their way into Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara's home at 5:00am on May 2nd, and took him to Calixto Garcia Hospital. They refused to meet his demands, and feared the consequences, at the time, of the Cuban artist and dissident dying on a hunger and thirst strike.

Amnesty International on May 21, 2021 recognized  Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara as a prisoner of conscience for the third time since 2018. A day earlier on May 20, 2021 they issued an urgent action calling on members to write letters to the Cuban government demanding Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara's immediate and unconditional release and to condemn his detention.

 What is the immediate cause of this crisis and the urgency in demanding his release? 

#SOSCuba “Que No Se Apague La Llama Libertad“
Acción Performance colectiva de Osiris Cisneros & Olga Más con ProActivo Miami & Kiele Alessandra Cabrera & MSI en Miami & Dariel Fernandez 7 ADN Cuba por La Libertad de #Cuba Celebrando el 20 de Mayo #DiaDeLaIndependenciaNacional pic.twitter.com/fHg1ZIHXJC

— ProActivo Miami (@ProactivoM) May 21, 2021

 

On April 25, 2021, Otero Alcántara initiated a hunger and thirst strike to protest the seizure and destruction of his works of art on April 16, 2021, his de facto house arrest, and the ongoing persecution of artists. Officials arbitrarily detained activists, like rapper and poet AfrikReina who tried to visit Luis Manuel at his home, and forcibly isolated him.

News reports are emerging with sources claiming that Luis Manuel is being subjected to electroshock therapy. There is reason to be concerned with these emerging claims of psychiatric instruments being applied against the Cuban dissident.

In 1991 Freedom House and Of Human Rights published The Politics of Psychiatry in Revolutionary Cuba by Charles J. Brown and Armando M. Lago that reported on the political abuse of psychiatry in Cuba under the Castro regime. The preface was written by Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky in which he described how the Soviet Union used psychiatry as a weapon. Bukovsky observed that "Cuba in this regard is unique only by the hasty pace of the disease: it covered in thirty-two years what the Soviet Union achieved in seventy-three. Within a single generation, Cuba advanced from 'revolutionary justice' to 'socialist legality,' from liquidation of 'class enemies' to 'political re-education' and psychiatric treatment of those 'apathetic to socialism'."

Not only have regime agents used psychiatry as a weapon to destroy the psyches of dissidents, but  Calixto García Hospital has a track record of suspicious deaths of dissidents in a militarized environment.

Ministry of the Interior agents at the same hospital oversaw the untimely death of Ladies in White leader Laura Pollán in October 2011. She was isolated, relatives and friends not allowed to see her, and she died and was quickly cremated. There are numerous other cases of unexplained deaths in hospitals on the Island under the custody of State Security. Another one was that of the blind dissident Sergio Díaz Larrastegui in April 2012. In both cases, that of Pollán and that of Díaz Larrastegui, whose homes were headquarters in Havana of important human rights organizations, their deaths meant the closure of the headquarters and a severe blow to the civic movement.

In the case of Otero Alcántara, his home is the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement, an organization that in recent months has raised its voice in favor of freedom of expression on the Island, achieving numerous spontaneous and organized demonstrations in favor of their demands. The dictatorship that brought this activist to the brink of death cannot be trusted to now want to save him. We must demand that he be freed immediately and returned to family and friends.

 

Join campaign with hashtag #TheEternalFlame to support Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, the San Isidro Movement and free expression in Cuba

#TheEternalFlame #LaLlamaEterna.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has been on a hunger and thirst strike since Sunday, April 25, 2021. He is demanding that Castro regime officials:  

1- Lift the police cordon on Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara in force since November 2020, and get rid of the state of siege as a practice to stop the free movement of artists, journalists and activists.  

2- Return the art works that were stolen from Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara and compensate him for any damages that they’ve incurred. 

3- Respect for Cuban artists and them exercising their freedoms fully.

The dictatorship has responded with repression and more repression. Amnesty International has collaborated with artist Erik Ravelo and released the following.

Amnesty International, April 29, 2021

 Cuba: Amnesty International and artist Erik Ravelo launch ‘The Eternal Flame’, a digital conceptual memorial in support of San Isidro Movement and freedom of expression

Image from the video "The Eternal Flame" created by Erik Ravelo

April 29, 2021

In response to a recent wave of detentions and harassment of members of Cuba’s San Isidro Movement – composed of artists, academics, and alternative thinkers – Amnesty International calls on artists and human rights defenders and activists across the world to join the campaign “The Eternal Flame”, in solidarity with the Movement and independent artists in the country.

“The members of the San Isidro Movement are human rights defenders who stand to protect a very basic freedom, the right to peacefully express their minds and souls. The Cuban government is clearly not ashamed of constantly harassing, detaining and surveilling them before the eyes of the international community, but they are not alone and won’t be silenced. We will continue to mobilize people around the world, including artists, to support them and to denounce these human rights violations and the inhumane and cruel treatment by Cuban authorities”, said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

In late January 2021, members of the San Isidro Movement and other human rights defenders and journalists, including artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, continued to be detained or harassed by authorities. Cuba’s Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso Grau, reportedly assaulted people who gathered in front of the Ministry’s offices to read poetry and peacefully protest attacks on artists in recent months, in another example of the Cuban government’s long-standing assault on freedom of expression.

The January demonstrations followed a protest rarely seen in Cuba on 27 November 2020, during which hundreds of artists gathered outside the Ministry of Culture to demand dialogue with Cuban authorities on the issue of artistic freedom.

In weeks following the November protest, Amnesty International gathered evidence confirming that members of the Movement and their allies were under frightening levels of surveillance and faced arrest by police and state security officials if they left their houses, which could have amounted to house arrest under international human rights law.

During March and April of 2021, over 30 activists were reportedly under similar surveillance levels. Additionally, authorities reportedly took and destroyed some of Luis Manuel Otero’s artwork. Luis Manuel Otero has been on hunger strike for over 48 hours, in protest against these abuses and restrictions on freedom of expression.

Erik Ravelo, author of this conceptual video, is a renowned Cuban artist known as the creative mind behind Benetton’s “Unhate” campaign, which featured controversial images of world leaders kissing and earned him the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2012. For The Eternal Flame, he was inspired and supported by fellow Cuban artists and their bravery to resist against illegitimate restrictions imposed by the Cuban government on their freedom of expression.

“This project represents the flame of freedom: a flame that never goes out, a contemporary action that never ends and that is kept alive by our solidarity with artists defending freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and as artists, nobody should tell us what is okay to do or say through our art. This is why I, and other artists in the video, burn our tools, to draw parallels with what the Cuban government is doing against Cuban artists. It’s time to stop this repression and respect creative freedom,” said Erik Ravelo.

By launching “The Eternal Flame”, Amnesty International and Erik Ravelo invite artists and activists to express their solidarity with the San Isidro Movement and other human rights defenders and artists, urging Cuba’s government to stop repressing them and, instead, take overdue steps to engage in genuine dialogue to protect freedom of expression. People can show their support on social media, using the hashtags #TheEternalFlame #LaLlamaEterna.

Cuba: San Isidro movement and allies under frightening levels of surveillance | Amnesty International

Report from earlier today on repression against San Isidro Movement

Amnesty International, December 15, 2020

Cuba: San Isidro movement and allies under frightening levels of surveillance

Members of the San Isidro Movement – the group of Cuban artists, academics, and other alternative thinkers who garnered global attention by staging a rare protest outside the Ministry of Culture on 27 November – as well as independent journalists covering their story, are under frightening levels of surveillance and face arrest by police and state security officials if they leave their houses, which amounts to house arrest, said Amnesty International today.

“The disturbing level of restrictions to which activists and independent journalists are now being subjected is like something out of an Orwell novel set in Havana’s palm-lined streets. The police presence outside their homes, and constant threat of arrest, is so relentless that activists are essentially being imprisoned in their own homes,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

“The surveillance and harassment we are seeing is unacceptable under international law as it violates the rights to privacy and in many cases it constitutes a deprivation of liberty, or at least unlawful restriction on freedom of movement. We will continue to monitor this alarming situation.”

Over the space of two weeks, Amnesty International researchers gathered testimony from activists describing police surveillance details outside their homes, risk of arrest should they try to leave, and restrictions placed on where they can go. The organization’s researchers and its Crisis Evidence Lab analysed and verified the location of photos and videos documenting this surveillance outside the homes of approximately 11 activists, some who are living with other activists.

In most instances, the photos show one or more marked police cars parked on the street corners outside the activists’ homes. In other instances, plain clothed individuals, who activists believe are also state security officials, appear in the photos, often on motorbikes.

In the photos received from activists between 1 and 13 December, Amnesty International researchers observed 24 different marked police cars. Several activists had at least five different police vehicles parked outside their home over that same period.

Anamely Ramos González pidió que compartiéramos este video si era detenida por la Seguridad de Estado. https://t.co/Qn7jpu8BPY

— ADNCuba (@CubaAdn) December 15, 2020

Anamely Ramos González and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who Amnesty International named prisoners of conscience following the raid on the San Isidro headquarters in Old Havana on 26 November, are just two of the activists who have almost permanent surveillance outside their homes.

Following the raid, Anamely Ramos González, like most of the other activists at the headquarters, was taken home. But after she tried to leave again in the early hours of the 27 November, she was arbitrarily detained and alternating state security vehicles drove her around Havana and its outskirts for more than 12 hours. She told Amnesty International there were always four officials present, mostly men. She was eventually released to a home where she is now staying with another activist.  

On 11 December, Anamely told Amnesty International that she has only been able to leave home once in more than 10 days. “Really, it’s very uncomfortable… They search people who come, they ask for their identification… They have searched their pockets… You feel isolated.”

On the occasion she did leave to go to the Mexican embassy, it was only with the permission of the state security officials permanently located outside her house, three of whom took her there. A doctoral student in anthropology at Mexico’s Ibero University, Anamely believes authorities allowed the visit to the Embassy because “it suits” the authorities for her to leave the country.

According to Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, a vocal voice in the San Isidro Movement, following the raid on the 26 November he was taken to hospital where state security officials monitored him day and night in his room. Since 2 December, the day after he was returned home, he says he has had permanent surveillance on the street corners outside his house. He says a new security camera has also been placed directly facing his front door. “The camera moves with me,” he told Amnesty International. “If I go outside, they will arrest me… Eighty percent of my friends are under surveillance.

As of 11 December, according to information provided to Amnesty International by the San Isidro Movement, and according to information verified by Amnesty International, at least six activists, including Anamely Ramos González, Omara Ruiz Urquiola, Maykel Castillo Pérez, Esteban Lázaro Rodríguez López, Niovel Alexander Tamayo, and Osmel Adrián Rubió Santos have been under almost permanent surveillance for nearly two weeks.

#ATENCIÓN Detenido por la policía política Osmel Adrián Rubio. #15Dic #Cuba pic.twitter.com/mouNLKvSbY

— Movimiento San Isidro (@Mov_sanisidro) December 15, 2020

World Press Freedom Day 2020: A Call for Journalism Without Fear or Favour in Cuba

"Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." - Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 1948

May 3rd, since December 1993 has been recognized by the international community as World Press Freedom Day.  It is observed on the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of press freedom principles drafted by African Journalists and passed on May 3, 1992 at a UNESCO seminar on "Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press," held in Windhoek, Namibia.

Today, this blog will focus on press freedoms in Cuba, or better put their systematic absence.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released the 2020 edition of their World Press Freedom Index. revealing that Cuba dropped from 169th in press freedom in 2019 to 171st in 2020 edging out Saudi Arabia to become part of the 10 worst ranked countries in the index.

The Paris based press freedom organization disclosed in their 2020 summary how coverage of Cuba in the international press is slanted and often repeating official news that echoes the dictatorship because those who are critical are expelled from the country creating a chilling effect on those who remain behind.

CUBA
Constant ordeal for independent media

A self-styled socialist republic and one-party state, Cuba has continued year after year to be Latin America’s worst media freedom violator. Miguel Díaz-Canel’s election as president in April 2018, after 59 years of repression under the Castro family, has made no difference. The regime maintains an almost total media monopoly and the constitution prohibits privately-owned media. The few Cuban bloggers and independent journalists are threatened by the government and watched by security agents, who often take them in for questioning and delete information in their devices. Journalists regarded as especially troublesome are often arrested and jailed. The authorities also control the coverage of foreign reporters by granting accreditation selectively and expelling those regarded as too “negative” about the government. The gradual improvement in Internet access nonetheless constitutes grounds for hope about the future of press freedom in Cuba.

171 in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index

https://rsf.org/en/cuba

Cuban journalists continue to be targeted and silence in the time of COVID-19 when independent journalism is more important than ever. Yoel Bravo Lopez, a citizen journalist from Villa Clara who in mid-April reported over social media an increase in COVID-19 cases at a retirement home in Santa Clara, was arrested on Monday, April 20, 2020 by State Security, interrogated for several hours, fined 3,000 pesos ($120) and threatened with “going to prison just like Jose Daniel Ferrer” if he continued disseminating information the government considers “contrary to the public interest.” This is not an isolated case. Mónica Baróon detained on Friday, April 17, 2020 was also interrogated, fined 3,000 pesos ($120) under the Decree Law 370 rule that regulates the use of the internet in Cuba, and also threatened with prison. Mónica Baró Sánchez was awarded the Gabo Prize 2019 for her article ’The blood was never yellow.’ Other journalists targeted in recent weeks are Yoe Suárez and Waldo Fernández Cuenca, of DIARIO DE CUBA; and Camila Acosta and Julio Antonio Aleaga, of Cubanet. 

Little wonder that Cuba in 2020 is among the 10 worse countries for press freedom in the world according to Reporters Without Borders.

However, it is also important to point out that this has been a terrible reality for the past 61 years with the arrival of the Castro dictatorship to power. Prisoners of conscience have been an every existent reality through all that time that continues into the present.

Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces

Since this is World Press Freedom Day we are focusing on the case of imprisoned Cuban journalist
Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces, who is in poor health and has been in prison since September 11, 2019. His son, Roberto José Quiñones Castro, who resides in the United States, has been campaigning for his dad's release, picketing the Cuban Embassy in Washington DC.

Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces was unjustly imprisoned for five years for being an independent attorney in Cuba in 1998. No longer able to practice as a lawyer upon his release, he became an independent journalist.

Roberto Quiñones was physically assaulted on April 22, 2019.

On April 22, 2019 Roberto de Jesús Quiñones was beaten up for covering the trial of a religious couple sentenced to prison for homeschooling their kids. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported on April 24th what had happened:

On April 22, at around 2:00 p.m., Cuban police agents detained Quiñones, a contributor to the news website CubaNet, as he was standing outside of the Guantánamo Municipal Tribunal, according to CubaNet and the Association for Press Freedom (APLP), a Cuban press freedom organization. At the time of his detention, Quiñones was covering the trial of two Cuban evangelical pastors facing charges for homeschooling their children, CubaNet reported. While being transported in the police car, agents beat Quiñones, injuring his mouth, tongue, and right thumb and causing an inflammation in his right ear, his wife told APLP.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists in the same report "Cuba is one of the most hostile environments for the press in the world, and ranks among CPJ's 10 Most Censored Countries."

Picket on August 13, 2019 outside the Cuban embassy in Washington DC.

 On April 27, 2020 Cubanet released a new video in Spanish by Roberto José Quiñones Castro warns that his dad's health is deteriorating and again calls for the release of his father, Roberto de Jesús Quiñones.


Below is a letter by three prominent international human rights organizations calling for the release of Roberto de Jesús Quiñones released today on World Press Freedom Day.

May 2, 2020

To: President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez
President of the Republic of Cuba
Office of the President
Hidalgo Esq. 6
Plaza de La Revolución,
CP 10400

Sent via email: despacho@presidencia.gob.cu

Dear President Díaz-Canel,

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Amnesty International, and Article 19 Mexico and Central America Office are writing to call for the immediate release of jailed journalist Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces amid the sweeping COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ most recent annual survey conducted on December 1, 2019, there were at least 250 journalists behind bars around the world, including in Honduras, Venezuela, and Cuba. On March 30, CPJ published an open letter to world leaders urging the release of all journalists imprisoned for their work. The situation of Cuban journalist Roberto Quiñones appears particularly dire, so we are reiterating that call to you on his behalf at this time of grave public health concern.

Roberto Quiñones, a lawyer and contributor to the news website CubaNet, has been imprisoned in the Guantánamo Provincial Prison since September 11, 2019, where he is serving a year-long correctional labor sentence. A Guantánamo court sentenced Quiñones in August 2019 after he refused to pay a fine for charges of “resistance” and “disobedience” stemming from his April 22, 2019, arrest while reporting on a trial.

In September 2019, Amnesty International named Quiñones a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising his freedom of expression, and called for his immediate and unconditional release. In November 2019, representatives of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, as well as the Special Rapporteurs for Freedom of Expression from the UN and IACHR, informed your government that the Working Group was investigating Quiñones’ case as a potential case of arbitrary detention and violation of due process.

Both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights guarantee the right to “seek,receive and impart information” freely, and include specific protections for journalists. Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Cuba signed in 2008, provides for the right to hold opinions “without interference” and the right to freely “seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds,” including on issues of public interest.

We remind you that Cuba must guarantee these rights, which are particularly relevant to the current global context.

Cuba also has a duty to protect its population amid the COVID-19 pandemic without discrimination, including those deprived of their liberty. According to the World Health Organization, “People deprived of their liberty, and those living or working in enclosed environments in their close proximity, are likely to be more vulnerable to the COVID-19 disease than the general population.”

Imprisoned journalists have no control over their surroundings, cannot choose to isolate, and are often denied necessary medical care. In addition, some individuals appear to be at particular risk of severe illness or death linked to COVID-19, including older individuals and people with pre-existing medical conditions, according to the WHO.

Roberto Quiñones is no exception. In letters published by CubaNet on October 1 and March 5, Quiñones has described his conditions at the Guantánamo Provincial Prison, which include overcrowding, poor food and water quality, and lack of adequate medical attention. Quiñones was reportedly subject to retaliation for publishing this information in the form of “disciplinary measures,” including denying access to phone calls and barring him from outdoor spaces in the prison.

Quiñones has served more than half of his year-long sentence, during which time he has suffered from escalating health problems, including psoriasis that, according to CubaNet, has worsened in detention, and significant weight loss due to gastrointestinal complications, according to his wife. With detainees at increased risk from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cuban government must release Roberto Quiñones.

Mr. President, no journalist should have to choose between silence or prison. On this World Press Freedom Day, we urge you to release Roberto Quiñones, protect the free flow of information, and guarantee that all journalists in Cuba are able to perform their fundamental role in society, free of any reprisals.

Sincerely,

Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ)Amnesty International
ARTICLE 19 Mexico & Central America Office

Source: https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/AMR2522562020ENGLISH.pdf

Bacardi leads in sustainable rum production while Cuban rum distilleries destroy the environment

Private property rights are human rights.

Source: CubaBrief

Earth Day was celebrated on April 22nd around the world, and Nicola Carruthers writing in The Spirits Business highlighted companies with initiatives to protect the environment and support sustainable development. According to Carruthers, "in 2018, Bacardi teamed up with environmental charity Lonely Whale to clamp down on single-use plastic and eradicate one billion plastic straws by 2020. The Future Doesn’t Suck campaign saw Bacardi remove “non-essential”, non-recyclable single-use plastic across its global supply chain."

.@BACARDI is donating 12,000 bottles of hand sanitizers to police and fire departments in Coral Gables, Hialeah, Homestead, Miami and other areas in South Florida. pic.twitter.com/pHYUOR7Ivr

— Joel Franco (@OfficialJoelF) April 27, 2020

Bacardi shifted some of its production last month to produce hand sanitizer in response to COVID-19, much of which is being given to police, nurses, non-profits and others battling coronavirus on the frontlines. The company has also set up a $ 3 million dollar fund to provide financial support, meals and other necessities to help bar owners and bar staff impacted by the pandemic.

Meanwhile, in Cuba there is a crackdown underway for those who are providing independent information on the situation on the ground. Independent journalists are jailed for doing their job. Amnesty International has issued a second urgent action for "63-year-old independent journalist Roberto Quiñones Haces." He was "imprisoned on 11 September 2019 for “resistance” and “disobedience”, remains in the Provincial Prison of Guantánamo in concerning sanitary conditions, according to reports. His family stated he has also developed health conditions, which may put him at increased risk in face of COVID-19."

Amnesty International is demanding that "Cuban authorities to immediately and unconditionally release [ Roberto Quiñones ] and other prisoners of conscience in the country, amid grave fears over the spread of COVID-19 in Cuba’s prisons." Independent journalists have broken important stories in the past such as the Cuban government's 2012 response to the cholera outbreak that netted independent journalist Calixto Martinez prison time and recognition as a prisoner of conscience. In 2018, Julio Batista was the winner of the King of Spain Journalism Award for his reporting on pollution from Cuba's main rum distillery in a long 2017 investigative piece titled "The dead waters of Havana Club". (An English excerpt of the report is included below.)

Sadly, the communist takeover of Cuba's main rum distillery, and taking of Havana Club from "the Arechabala Family on June 1, 1960 at gun point ended a family rum-making business that had started in 1878 in Cuba. The Arechabala family lost everything and was forced to flee their homeland, with a scant few of their remaining possessions – the precious Havana Club recipe being one of them.

Since the 1980s, liquid wastes have been a major problem for the Ronera. Photo Julio Batista.

Meanwhile, the Castro regime started to sell their stolen version of Havana Club, that today "pumps 1,288 cubic meters of waste liquids into the Chipriona inlet every day, mostly vinasse (a residual liquid remaining from the fermentation and distillation of alcoholic liquors). It has been doing that since the 1990s, although the problems became more acute starting in 2007," according to Julio Batista in his 2017 report.

Ronera Santa Cruz produces 60 million liters per year. More than half are Havana Club products.

Bacardi, founded in Cuba in 1862, has demonstrated over the years a concern for sustainable development and rootedness to Cuba with a multigenerational sense of belonging and protection of their properties, and surrounding communities. The late British philosopher Roger Scruton explained that " for it is only private ownership that confers responsibility for the environment as opposed to the unqualified right to exploit it, a right whose effect we saw in the ruined landscapes and poisoned waterways of the former Soviet empire." Unfortunately, these ruined landscapes and poisoned waterways are found all too often today in Castro's Cuba. The video below is in Spanish, but the images of environmental destruction at Chipriona inlet are understood in any language.

Amnesty International identified five new prisoners of conscience in Cuba, but there are more.

The current human rights situation.

Amnesty International on August 26, 2019 identified five new prisoners of conscience in Cuba, and states that they likely represent “a tiny fraction of those behind bars for peacefully expressing their views.”

The human rights organization goes on to explain that this is due to Cuban authorities continuing to deny independent human rights monitors access to Cuba and its prisons. Last time the Castro regime allowed such a visit was 1989.

In addition to the lack of access Amnesty International also highlights a “profound climate of fear” due to "the state’s machinery of control.” More media attention, especially by foreign correspondents based in Cuba would discourage these outrageous abuses.

Yoani Sánchez over twitter on August 27, 2019 placed the crime of "pre-criminal dangerousness" into context:

" Did you know that in Cuba you can be jailed for a crime that seems to be taken from the film ‘Minority Report’? It's called 'pre-criminal dangerousness' an they lock you up for what you could do, for the suspicion of an action in the future. Many times, that's how political reprisals are hidden."

Amnesty International should add independent journalist Roberto de Jesus Quiñones to the list of prisoners of conscience. He faces one year in prison for his journalism.

Roberto de Jesus Quiñones

Amnesty should also add Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda, a jailed Cuban dissident to the list of prisoners of conscience. Xiomera is a member of the Ladies in White, a mother, and a prisoner of conscience. She was arrested on April 16, 2016 for speaking out during a human rights demonstration in Havana's Central park. She was placed on parole in January of 2018. She was re-arrested in mid-September 2018 under the charge of being "threatening." On September 19, 2018 she was tried and sentenced to one year and four months in prison.  

Amnesty International, August 26, 2019

Cuba: Amnesty International names five new prisoners of conscience

Just over a year since President Miguel Díaz-Canel took office, the existence of prisoners of conscience in Cuba remains a sharp indicator of how authorities there continue to restrict the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, Amnesty International said today.

“For decades, Cuba has stifled freedom of expression and assembly by locking up people for their beliefs and opposition to the government. Over the years, the names of Cuba’s prisoners of conscience have changed, but the state’s tactics have stayed almost exactly the same,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

For decades, Cuba has stifled freedom of expression and assembly by locking up people for their beliefs and opposition to the government. Over the years, the names of Cuba’s prisoners of conscience have changed, but the state’s tactics have stayed almost exactly the same. - Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

“Sadly, we know that the five prisoners of conscience we have named today likely represent a tiny fraction of those behind bars for peacefully expressing their views. As the Cuban authorities continue to deny independent human rights monitors access to the country and its prisons, and because the state’s machinery of control maintains a profound climate of fear, there are serious barriers for Amnesty International to document such cases.”

The list of prisoners of conscience includes members of political and pro-democracy groups not recognized by the state – all of whom have been imprisoned for crimes that are either inconsistent with international law or that have been used for decades in Cuba to silence critical voices. As the executive continues to tightly control lawyers and the judiciary, there are few ways to challenge such decisions.

“The government of Díaz-Canel should focus on finding real solutions to Cuba’s problems, which include increasing scarcity of food and medicine, according to news reports. Instead, it continues to lock people up for their views”, said Erika Guevara-Rosas.

The government of Díaz-Canel should focus on finding real solutions to Cuba’s problems, which include increasing scarcity of food and medicine, according to news reports. Instead, it continues to lock people up for their views. - Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

 https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/08/cuba-cinco-nuevos-presos-de-conciencia/

Amnesty International, August 26, 2019

CUBA: A SNAPSHOT OF PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF PRESIDENT MIGUEL DÍAZ-CANEL

INTRODUCTION

In a rare press conference with former US President Obama in 2016, President Raúl Castro flatly denied that there were any “political prisoners” in Cuba. However, in the past four years, Amnesty International has named 12 prisoners of conscience in the country, and there are likely many more.

Amnesty International calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, as they have been deprived of their liberty solely for peacefully exercising their human rights.
Just over a year after new President Miguel Díaz-Canel assumed office, NGO Cuban Prisoners Defenders claims that at least 71people are imprisoned on politically motivated charges. Having considered just a handful those cases, in which we were able to review official court sentences and other available documentation, Amnesty International believes that the below mentioned individuals are prisoners of conscience –people imprisoned solely because of the peaceful exercise of their human rights.
Without access to Cuba, and because lawyers and the judiciary remain firmly under the authorities’ control, there are serious barriers for Amnesty International to document cases of those imprisoned solely for politically motivated reasons, and as such there are highly likely to be many more cases of prisoners of conscience than our organization has been able to document.
According to information available to Amnesty International, all the individuals are members of political opposition groups, not recognized by the authorities. All of them have been imprisoned for offences that are not internationally recognizable, which have been used for decades in Cuba to silence critical voices. Amnesty International calls for the reform of Cuba’s criminal laws to remove provisions that are inconsistent with international law, such as “dangerousness” and “contempt.”

BACKGROUND: CRIMINAL LAWS USED TO SILENCE IN CUBA 

RESISTANCE AND PUBLIC DISORDER
Provisions of the criminal code such as “resistance” to public officials carrying out their duties, and “public disorder” have been used for decades to stifle the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association in Cuba.CONTEMPT“Contempt”, defined in article 144.1 of Cuba’s Criminal Code, is an undue restriction on the right to freedom of expression, as public officials should tolerate more criticism than private individuals. The use of defamation laws with the purpose or effect of inhibiting criticism of government or public officials violates the right to freedom of expression.
DANGEROUSNESS

The provision of “dangerousness” is contained in Articles 78-84 of the Penal Code. These provisions are imprecise and subjective, which allow the authorities to apply them arbitrarily. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions has stated that detentions in Cuba are arbitrary when “persons are deprived of their liberty for a long period on the basis of their alleged dangerousness, with no reference to specific acts defined with the rigour that has been required by international criminal law since at least the eighteenth century, and which is now enshrined in article 11, paragraph 2, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.
Amnesty International has further documented how the authorities use dismissals from state-employment, and harassment of self-employed workers in emerging private sector, as tactics of control over the right to freedom of expression, leaving many critical of the state’s economic or political model jobless.In multiple sentences issued for “dangerousness” reviewed by Amnesty International, the court refers to the fact that the accused does not work, as part of its reasoning for issuing the sentence of “dangerousness”. As those overtly critical of the government are frequently subject to such dismissals, this, in turn, facilitates the authorities’ ability to imprison dissenting voices for “dangerousness”.

PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE

1. Josiel Guía Piloto (male) is president of the Republican Party of Cuba and serving a five year-sentence for “public disorder” and “contempt.”Josiel was detained after having criticized former President Fidel Castro on 1 December 2016. According to his mother, who has also been involved in activism against the Cuban government, prison officialsbeat him in prison leaving him with complications to his left lung. On 11 June 2019, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures to respect and protect his rights to health, life and physical integrity.

Josiel Guía Piloto

2.Silverio Portal Contreras (male), former activist with the Ladies in White, is serving a 4-year sentence for "contempt" and "public disorder." According to a court document, Silverio was arrested on the 20 June 2016 in Old Havana after shouting “Down Fidel Castro, down Raúl...” The document states that the behavior of the accused is particularly offensive because it took place in a touristic area. The document further describes the accused as having “bad social and moral behavior” and mentions that he fails to participate in pro-government activities. According to Silverio’s wife, before his arrest he had campaigned against the collapsing of dilapidated buildings in Havana.  

Silverio Portal Contreras

3. Mitzael Díaz Paseiro(male) is a member of the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Cívica Orlando Zapata Tamayo (FNRC-OZT) and who was imprisoned in 2017 for four years, for “dangerousness”.Mitzael Diaz Paseiro is a political activist who was campaigning against the government’s position in the constitutional reform process. According to his wife, prior to his imprisonment the police had detained him multiple times for his activism. According to court documents, which Amnesty International was able to review, Mitzael was imprisoned for “dangerousness”, for among other things, failing to hold a job, for meeting with “citizens of terrible moral and conduct”, for drinking alcohol frequently, and using vulgar language. Mitzael’s wife says he suffers a heart condition and says he has been beaten by officials in jail for his views.

Mitzael Díaz Paseiro

4. Eliecer Bandera Barrera(male), an activist of the Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU) since 2015, is serving a sentence for “dangerousness” until 2021. Eliecer was arrested in September 2016 after having filmed videos for UNPACU about the conditions of workers interned in camps, according to his wife. Eliecer was sentenced to four years imprisonment for “dangerousness” by the Municipal Court of Rio Cauto in 2016, and subsequently further sentenced to 10 months for escaping the camp where he was interned to make a phone call to a sick family member, before voluntarily returning. According to the sentence, during his imprisonment for “dangerousness”, Eliecer “did not participate in political and educational activities” ... “showing disrespect for the officers guarding him”. He also has a prior sentence for “resistance” issued in 2003. 

Eliecer Bandera Barrera

5. Edilberto Ronal Arzuaga Alcalá (male) is an UNPACU activist, reportedly imprisoned for not paying a fine.According to information received by Amnesty International, Edilberto has been imprisoned since December 2018, reportedly for not paying fines related to his alleged distribution of political posters. Edilberto was most recently involved in the “Cuba Decide” Campaign and campaigned against the government’s position in the recent constitutional reform process. According to Cuban Prisoners Defenders, Edilberto was detained on 24 December 2018, when filming testimonies of people discussing the constitutional reform process in a public market, in the city of Camagüey. After being taken to prison, he was sentenced to 14 months of prison for failing to pay fines previously accumulated.On 22 April 2019 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures calling on Cuban authorities to respect and protect the rights to health, life and physical integrity of Edilberto.

Edilberto Ronal Arzuaga Alcalá

RECOMMENDATIONS
These five cases show that although the leadership in Cuba might have changed, illegitimate restrictions on freedom of expression and association are still the practice. Therefore, besides other key recommendations presented in our Human Rights Agenda for Cuba, we urge the Cuban government to:

1. Immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience, and quash their convictions, which are solely based on their peaceful exercise of their human rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly;

2.Pending their release, ensure that prisoners of conscience are protected from torture and other ill-treatment, and are allowed access to their family, a lawyer of their choice, and adequate medical care; and are treated in full accordance with the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules);

3.Guarantee the right to freedom of expression, assembly and association in Cuba, including for dissident, opponent or activist voices and repeal all legislation which unduly limits these rights.