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TITLE:  CUBA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE:  FEBRUARY 1995

                              CUBA


Cuba is a totalitarian state controlled by President Fidel
Castro, who is Chief of State, Head of Government, First
Secretary of the Communist Party, and commander in chief of the
armed forces.  President Castro exercises control over all
aspects of Cuban life through a broad network of directorates
ultimately answerable to him through the Communist Party, as
well as through the bureaucracy and the state security
apparatus.  The Party is the only legal political entity, and
President Castro personally chooses the membership of the
select group which heads the Party.  The Party controls all
government positions, including judicial offices.  Though not a
formal requirement, party membership is a de facto prerequisite
for high-level official positions and professional advancement.

The Ministry of Interior is the principal organ of state
security and totalitarian control.  The Revolutionary Armed
Forces (FAR), directed by President Castro's brother Raul,
exercise de facto control over the Ministry.  In addition to
regulating migration and controlling the Border Guard and the
police forces, the Interior Ministry investigates nonconformity
and actively suppresses organized opposition and dissent.  It
maintains a pervasive system of vigilance through undercover
agents, informers, the Rapid Reaction Brigades (BRR's), and the
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR's).  The
Government has traditionally used the CDR's as a means to
mobilize citizens against dissenters, impose ideological
conformity, and root out "counterrevolutionary" behavior.
However, given the severe economic decay, CDR's are not as
strong as they once were.  Other mass organizations also inject
government and Communist party control into every citizen's
daily activities at home, work, and school.

The Government continued to control the means of production and
remained virtually the sole employer, despite some foreign
investment and legalization of some types of self-employment.
The economy remained in a depression, a result of the severe
inefficiencies of the economic system as much as the collapse
of Cuba's relationship with the former Soviet bloc and the end
of $4 to $5 billion in annual Soviet aid.  Gross domestic
product declined to one-half of the 1989 level, and total
foreign trade remained at around one-fourth of the 1989 level.
The Government continued its austerity measures known
euphemistically as the "special period in peacetime" and
permitted citizens to hold foreign currency.  For the first
time in years, the Government permitted a limited resumption of
agricultural markets.  The system of "tourist apartheid"
continued, in which foreign visitors received preference over
citizens for food, consumer products, and government services,
as well as access to hotels and resorts from which Cuban
tourists were barred.

The authorities were responsible for the extrajudicial killings
of citizens fleeing the country.  The Government sharply
restricts basic political and civil rights, including the right
of citizens to change their government; the freedoms of speech,
press, association, assembly, and movement; as well as the
right to privacy and various workers' rights.  The authorities
neutralize dissent through a variety of tactics designed to
keep opponents marginalized, divided, and discredited, or to
encourage them to leave Cuba.  Following a large antigovernment
protest on August 5, the authorities detained several hundred
people for several days without charges, including about 30
human rights leaders.

While the Government normally restricts emigration severely, it
suspended its policy regarding unauthorized departures in
August and allowed about 30,000 Cubans to depart in privately
owned boats and homemade rafts.  It reinstated the prohibition
on unauthorized departures following the conclusion of the
U.S.-Cuba migration agreement on September 9, but it agreed to
use "mainly persuasive methods" to prevent unsafe departures
and did not reimpose criminal penalties for such departures.

To a lesser extent than in the past, the Government continued
to employ "acts of repudiation," which are attacks by mobs
organized by the Government but portrayed as spontaneous public
rebukes, against dissident activity.  The Government also metes
out exceptionally harsh prison sentences to democracy and human
rights advocates whom it considers a threat to its control.

In March the U.N. Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) once again
passed a resolution endorsing the report of the UNHRC's Special
Rapporteur, which strongly criticized Cuba's gross violations
of human rights in great detail.  As it did with his
predecessor, the Government continued to refuse the Special
Rapporteur permission to visit Cuba.  However, in November the
Government permitted a noninvestigatory visit by the U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights, who sought to begin a dialog
with the authorities.

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1  Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
           Freedom from:

     a.  Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing

The authorities were responsible for the extrajudicial killing
of dozens of people.  In two separate incidents, government
vessels rammed and sank boats used by citizens to flee the
country.  In April the Border Guard sank the Olympia, killing
three people.  In July government vessels sank the Trece de
Marzo, killing some 40 people (see Section 2.d.).

     b.  Disappearance

There were no reports of disappearances.

     c.  Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
         Treatment or Punishment

The police and state security officials systematically
harassed, beat, and otherwise abused human rights activists and
political dissidents in public and private as a means of
intimidation and control.  In January state security operatives
severely beat Rene del Pozo of the opposition Socialist
Democratic Current on his way to a meeting with another
dissident.  Four men beat Francisco Chaviano of the Council for
Civil Rights in his home in March.  The men threatened to kill
Chaviano and then stole his motorcycle, which was spotted early
the next morning at a nearby Ministry of Interior parking lot.
While Lazaro Garcia, a leader of the Marti Association--Golden
Age of Cuba, was collecting written allegations of human rights
abuses from human rights advocates in May, two men attacked and
beat him.  They told him that he had already been warned
against continuing his human rights activities.

The authorities continued to use acts of repudiation to
intimidate human rights advocates and as a pretext for their
arrest, although to a much lesser extent than previous years.
Government security forces staged acts of repudiation by
massing crowds of people outside homes of activists to harass
and ridicule them, yell insults, and vandalize property.  At
times, police forced the targeted activist through the crowd,
which physically beat or abused the person.  During such acts,
police often arrested advocates "for their own protection,"
then charged them with counterrevolutionary activity and
sentenced them to prison terms.  Carlos Urquiza Noa, president
of the Cuban Workers Union, was the object of an act of
repudiation on June 4.  The following day, a state security
official threatened to revoke his house arrest and send him to
Camaguey prison if he continued his union activities.

The Constitution prohibits abusive treatment of detainees and
prisoners.  However, police and prison officials often used
beatings, neglect, isolation, and other abuse against detainees
and prisoners convicted of political crimes (including human
rights advocates) or those who persisted in expressing their
views.  State security officials often subjected dissidents to
systematic psychological intimidation, including sleep
deprivation, in an attempt to coerce them to sign incriminating
documents or to force them to collaborate.

The UNHRC special rapporteur has found prison conditions, which
are characterized by habitual beatings of prisoners, severe
overcrowding, and the lack of food and medical care, to violate
Cuban law.  Prison officials severely beat Carlos Carrodegua
Zamora, imprisoned for "enemy propaganda," at Kilo 8 prison
when he asked for a mattress for his prison cell.  He was
unconscious for 2 days.  Jorge Luis Domingues Rivas, imprisoned
for "dangerousness," declared himself a prisoner of conscience
and refused to wear his prison uniform.  State security
officials handcuffed him and beat him repeatedly, before
placing him in a small, windowless punishment cell.

At the Voisin prison in Guines, eight prisoners died between
April and June as a result of poor prison conditions, including
lack of food and medical attention and an outbreak of
leptospirosis (rat fever).  The authorities denied medical care
to political prisoner Guillermo Mejias, held at Boniato prison
in Santiago de Cuba, despite his personal appeal to the prison
director in April.  His medical condition causes severe
pulmonary problems involving convulsions.

The Government claims that prisoners have guaranteed rights,
such as family visitation, adequate nutrition, pay for work,
the right to request parole, and the right to petition the
prison director.  However, according to Cuban human rights
advocates, the authorities frequently withdrew these
hypothetical rights, especially from political prisoners.
There has never been any indication that the authorities
investigated reports of abuse or took disciplinary action
against the agents responsible for abuses against political
prisoners.

Jailers often place dissidents in cells with common, and
sometimes violent, criminals.  The Government sentenced
Sebastian Arcos, vice president of the Committee for Human
Rights in Cuba (CCPDH), to 4 1/2 years' imprisonment for enemy
propaganda in 1992.  Other prisoners severely beat the
62-year-old Arcos in his cell late at night in February, after
weeks of threats and harassment.  The authorities took no
action against Arcos' attackers.

     d.  Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile

The authorities routinely use arbitrary arrest and detention.
The Law of Penal Procedures requires police to file formal
charges and either release a detainee or bring the case before
a prosecutor within 96 hours of arrest.  It also requires the
authorities to provide suspects with access to a lawyer within
10 days of arrest, but they routinely deny these guarantees to
those detained on state security grounds.  The Constitution
states that all legally recognized civil liberties can be
denied anyone actively opposing the "decision of the Cuban
people to build socialism."  The authorities invoke this
sweeping authority to justify lengthy detentions of human
rights advocates on the grounds they constitute
counterrevolutionary elements.  The UNHRC Special Rapporteur
found that the legal system lacks laws and institutions
providing due process.

The Penal Code also includes the concept of dangerousness,
defined as the "special proclivity of a person to commit
crimes, demonstrated by his conduct in manifest contradiction
of socialist norms."  Government authorities continue to
intimidate critics and opponents by threatening prosecution
under this article.  If the police decide a person exhibits
signs of dangerousness, they may bring the offender before a
court or subject him to "therapy" or "political reeducation"
(see Section 1.c.).

Following the large antigovernment protest on August 5, the
authorities detained several hundred people for several days
without charges, including about 30 human rights leaders, most
of whom had not participated in the protests.  Several reported
that the authorities beat them while they were in prison.
Gloria Bravo, a member of the Association of Mothers for
Dignity, had scars on her neck, chest, and arms from deep
gouges made by long fingernails and welts on her back from a
whipping.

The Government also uses exile as a tool for controlling and
reducing internal opposition.  During the rafters' exodus in
August and September, many human rights advocates reported that
representatives of state security visited them and threatened
them with detention if they remained in Cuba.  In some cases,
the agents offered them "assistance" in finding a raft or
boat.  Through these means, the authorities succeeded in
forcing at least 10 human rights leaders to leave the country
during the exodus.  State security officials reportedly offered
one imprisoned leader, Mercedes Parada Antunez, immediate
release from prison and a place on a boat for herself and her
two children if she agreed to accept exile.  She refused.  The
Government also repeatedly offered exile as the condition for
release to several prominent political prisoners, including
Sebastian Arcos, Francisco Chaviano, Rodolfo Gonzalez, and
Yndamiro Restano (see Section l.e.), but none of them would
accept such terms.  In December the authorities released Luis
Alberto Pita Santos, leader of the Association for the Defense
of Political Rights, and Pablo Reyes Martinez, on condition of
their exile to Spain.  Santos had been serving a 5-year
sentence for illegal association, clandestine printing, and
disrespect since 1990; Reyes had been serving an 8-year
sentence for enemy propaganda since 1992.

Between mid-October and late November, the Cuban Government
detained approximately 55 human rights advocates, including
some of the most prominent dissident leaders, for periods
ranging from several hours to several days.  Several were
detained twice during this period, including Corriente Civica
Cubana leader Felix Bonne, who was detained for 4 days in
October and 3 days in November.  The authorities warned these
dissidents against contacts with diplomatic missions,
specifically the U.S. Interests Section, and the international
press during the November visit of U.N. High Commissioner for
Human Rights Jose Ayala Lasso.  State agents visited other
activists at their homes and delivered similar warnings.  The
agents variously threatened the dissidents with formal arrest,
imprisonment, and retaliation against their children if they
continued to denounce human rights abuses in international
forums.  Some activists reported that agents even threatened
them with "disappearance" and death.  Those detained were held
in small, overcrowded cells without light or ventilation or a
sufficient number of beds, forcing many to sleep on the
concrete floors.

     e.  Denial of Fair Public Trial

Cuban law and trial practices do not meet international
standards for fair public trials.  Almost all cases are tried
in less than 1 day.  Although the Constitution provides for
independent courts, it explicitly subordinates them to the
National Assembly (ANPP) and the Council of State, which is
headed by Fidel Castro.  The rubberstamp ANPP and its lower
level counterparts elect all judges.  The subordination of the
courts to the Communist Party further compromises the
judiciary's independence.  Human Rights Watch/Americas has
reported that "trials staged in courts that lack independence
ended in convictions and prison sentences that rank among the
stiffest for thought crimes in the last 10 years."  There is no
known case in which a court has ruled against the Government on
any political or security matter.

Civil courts exist at municipal, provincial, and supreme court
levels.  Panels composed of a mix of professionally certified
and lay judges preside over them.  There are no jury trials.
Military tribunals assume jurisdiction for certain
counterrevolutionary cases.  Most trials are public; however,
trials are closed when state security is allegedly involved.
Prosecutors may introduce testimony from a CDR member as to the
revolutionary background of a defendant, which may contribute
to either a longer or shorter sentence.  The law recognizes the
right of appeal in municipal courts but limits it in provincial
courts to cases such as those involving maximum prison terms or
the death penalty.  The law requires that an appeal be filed
within 5 days of the verdict.

Criteria for presenting evidence, especially in cases of human
rights advocates, are arbitrary and discriminatory.  Often the
sole evidence provided, particularly in political cases, is the
defendant's confession, usually obtained under duress and
without the legal advice or knowledge of a defense lawyer.  The
authorities regularly deny defendants access to their lawyers
until the day of the trial.  Several dissidents who have served
prison terms say they were tried and sentenced without counsel
and were not allowed to speak on their own behalf.

On September 10, a military court tried 11 alleged participants
in the August 5 antigovernment protest.  The seven defense
attorneys reportedly sought to have the cases dismissed for
lack of evidence that the defendants even participated in the
demonstration.  Nevertheless, the court found eight of the
defendants guilty and sentenced them to from 6 months to 1 year
in prison.

The law provides an accused the right to an attorney, but the
ideological control the Government exerts over members of the
state-controlled lawyers' collectives, especially when they
defend persons accused of state security crimes, thoroughly
compromises their ability to represent clients.  Observers have
reported reluctance among attorneys to defend those charged in
political cases out of fear of jeopardizing their own careers.

In March the State prosecuted Rodolfo Gonzalez Gonzalez, a
prominent human rights advocate arrested during a government
crackdown in December 1992, on charges of enemy propaganda.
The prosecution charged that Gonzalez lied about the treatment
of political prisoners and the existence of civil disturbances
in statements to the international press.  The court admitted
in evidence unsworn videotaped testimony and testimony by
persons who admitted they did not witness the events in
question.  Despite strong evidence in Gonzalez's favor and weak
evidence against him, the court found Gonzalez guilty and
sentenced him to the 7 years' imprisonment requested by the
prosecution, one of the most severe sentences meted out to a
human rights advocate in several years.  After his
imprisonment, the authorities twice offered him release if he
would agree to accept exile; Gonzalez refused both offers,
explaining that the State had unfairly charged him and that it
could not condition his release on obligatory exile.

According to human rights advocates, there were at least 2,000
people imprisoned for various political crimes and probably far
more who were imprisoned for dangerousness.  The Penal Code
contains several articles prohibiting counterrevolutionary
activity.  The authorities often imprisoned advocates for enemy
propaganda, illicit association, contempt for authority
(usually for criticizing Fidel Castro), clandestine printing,
or the broad charge of rebellion.  They often bring the charge
of rebellion against advocates of peaceful democratic change.

     f.  Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
         Correspondence

Although the Constitution provides for the inviolability of
one's home and correspondence, official surveillance of private
and family affairs by government-controlled mass organizations,
such as the CDR's, remains one of the most pervasive and
repressive features of Cuban life.  The State has assumed the
right to interfere in the lives of citizens, even those who do
not actively oppose the Government and its practices.  The
Communist Party controls the mass organizations which permeate
society, although to a lesser extent than in the past because
of the collapsing economy.  Their ostensible purpose is to
"improve" the citizenry, but in fact their goal is to discover
and discourage nonconformity.

The authorities utilize a wide range of social controls.  The
educational system teaches that the State's interests have
precedence over all other commitments.  In September Minister
of Higher Education Fernando Vecino Alegret affirmed that
commitment to the revolution, including a willingness to defend
the revolution in the streets, was a condition for admission to
the university.  The Ministry of Education requires teachers to
evaluate students' ideological character and note it in records
the students carry throughout their schooling, which affect
their future educational and career prospects.

The Interior Ministry employs an intricate system of informants
and block committees (the CDR's) to monitor and control public
opinion.  Guardians of social conformity, CDR's are neighborhood
security committees tasked with closely monitoring the daily
lives of residents.  CDR's often report on suspicious activity,
including conspicuous consumption, unauthorized meetings--
including those with foreigners--and defiant attitudes toward
the Government and the revolution.

State security often reads international correspondence and
monitors overseas telephone calls and conversations with
foreigners.  Citizens do not have the right to receive
publications from abroad.  Security agents subject dissidents,
foreign diplomats, and journalists to surveillance.  In March
the Government lodged a formal complaint against two U.S.
diplomats for distributing enemy propaganda; the diplomats had
given a few copies of a Miami newspaper to fellow passengers on
a train to Santa Clara.

The authorities regularly search people and their homes without
probable cause to intimidate and harass them.  In August police
searched the home of Pastor Herrera, a leader of the human
rights group "Alternative Criteria," and confiscated written
human rights allegations, membership information, copies of a
Miami newspaper, and Herrera's appointment pass to visit the
U.S. Interests Section.

The authorities regularly detained human rights advocates after
they visited the U.S. Interests Section, confiscated their
written reports of human rights abuses, and seized copies of
U.S. newspapers and other informational materials.  Police
stopped two women, Isabel del Pino and Maria Valdes Rosado of
the dissident religious group "Christ the King" on March 9,
took them to a nearby police station, and subjected them to a
strip search.  Police carefully searched their belongings and
confiscated reports of human rights violations they had
written.  Two state security officials then threatened them
with arrest if they did not stop their activities.  In November
the authorities detained several activists following their
meetings with a visiting Spanish official.

Section 2  Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

     a.  Freedom of Speech and Press

The Government does not allow criticism of the revolution or
its leaders.  Laws against antigovernment propaganda, graffiti,
and insults against officials carry penalties of from 3 months
to 1 year in prison.  If President Castro or members of the
National Assembly or Council of State are the object of
criticism, the sentence is extended to 3 years.  Local CDR's
inhibit freedom of speech by monitoring and reporting dissent
or criticism.  Police arrested Lazaro Rivero de Quesada for
wearing a T-shirt with the words "Abajo Fidel" ("Down with
Fidel"), took him to a nearby police station, severely beat
him, and then held him incommunicado for 8 days.  A court
subsequently convicted him of contempt and sentenced him to 6
months in prison.  Even implicit criticism is subject to
punishment.  When Angel Luis Rodriguez Barrios asked police why
they had not yet found the person responsible for robbing and
killing his father the previous month, the police beat him and
broke his jaw.

The Government rigidly monitored other forms of expression and
often arrested people for the crimes of enemy propaganda and
clandestine printing.  Police arrested eight men and three
women in April for distributing antigovernment flyers at a
Havana baseball stadium, and charged them with writing slogans
against communism on walls.  The courts sentenced three of the
accused, Ivan and Ileana Curra and Jorge Alfonso, to 3 years at
a labor camp and the others to from 1 to 3 years' house arrest.

The Constitution states that electronic and print media are
state property and "cannot become, in any case, private
property."  The Communist Party controls all media as a means
to indoctrinate the public.  All media can only operate under
party guidelines and must faithfully reflect government views.
No other public forums exist.  The Government continued to jam
U.S.-operated Radio Marti and TV Marti, although it usually did
not jam other foreign radio broadcasts.  Radio Marti broadcasts
frequently overcame the jamming attempts.

The Government's control often extends to the foreign press as
well.  Although the Government issued visas to large numbers of
foreign journalists in April for a 2-day dialog with selected
members of the exile community, 1 week later it prevented four
members of a PBS news crew from doing an on-camera interview
with noted dissident Elizardo Sanchez.  While en route to
Sanchez's house, three men claiming to be police stopped the
news crew's car.  They forced the crew members out of their car
and took the car and the television cameras, valued at more
than $50,000.  Cuban authorities claimed the incident was
probably an act of banditry and by year's end had taken no
apparent action.  The Government allowed Havana-based foreign
journalists present for the August 5 antigovernment protests to
file stories but not to transmit video footage due to
unexplained "technical difficulties" in the Government's
satellite up-link capability.  The journalists had to fly the
video footage out by non-Cuban couriers; the Government
subsequently shut these journalists out of official press
events.

The Government circumscribes artistic, literary, and academic
freedoms.  The authorities fired Marta Vidaurreta Lima from her
position as professor at the Institute for Industrial Design
after she wrote a letter in January to the University Student
Federation criticizing the Government and its policies.  Her
dismissal notice stated that Vidaurreta Lima "had exceeded the
limits of the possible tolerance of ideas and points of view"
and that in so doing, she had "lost the essential requisites to
teach at this center."  Similarly, the authorities expelled
Carmen Gomez Fajo, a high school geography teacher, from her
job in May because of "her lack of identification with the
political principles that sustain our teaching."  Gomez had
expressed her disagreement with the government position that
the U.S. economic embargo was the cause of all of Cuba's
problems.

In late October, the University of Havana prevented five
professors from returning to their jobs for having submitted a
letter in late September to the Rector of the University in
which they criticized the Government and appealed for greater
political and academic freedom.  The University did not
formally dismiss them since, as the Rector wrote to one of
them, a formal letter of expulsion would only be used to "do
damage" with "false accusations about human rights."

     b.  Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Although the Constitution grants limited rights of assembly and
association, these rights are subject to the requirement that
they may not be "exercised against .... the existence and
objectives of the Socialist State."  The law punishes any
unauthorized assembly, including for private religious
services, of more than three persons, even in a private home,
by up to 3 months in prison and a fine.  The authorities
selectively enforce this prohibition and often use it as a
legal pretext to harass and imprison human rights advocates.
The authorities have never approved a public meeting of a human
rights group.  In January and again in March, state security
forces prevented a meeting of the dissident Socialist
Democratic Current (CSDC), which was to be held at the home of
CSDC president Vladimiro Roca, by forcibly barring access to
Roca's home by group members.

The Penal Code specifically outlaws "illegal or unrecognized
groups."  The Ministry of Justice, in consultation with the
Interior Ministry, decides whether to recognize organizations.
Apart from recognized churches and one or two carefully
monitored groups such as the Masonic Order, small human rights
groups represent the only associations outside the control of
the State, the Party, and the mass organizations.  The
authorities continued to ignore numerous applications for legal
recognition by various human rights groups, which then permits
the Government to jail members of these groups for illicit
association or target them for reprisals.  The authorities
discharged Rubiseyda Rojas Gonzalez, director of a trade school
in San Antonio de los Banos, in March because of her
association with the CSDC.  Her dismissal papers noted that
"eminently counterrevolutionary" materials were taken from her,
including copies of a Miami newspaper and a critical biography
of President Castro.