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The darkest stain is Cuba

By Mark Fitzgerald

In the nine years since Raúl Rivero renounced his job as a state journalist to become one of the few independent journalists in Cuba, he has been repeatedly tossed in jail or detained in his Havana home. He's been refused visas or told he could leave the island — but not come back. All his books have been banned and his telephone service is liable to be cut off at any time, especially after interviews with the foreign press.

Yet Rivero says he's never experienced anything like the pressure Cuba is putting on independent reporters right now.

"I believe we are living through the darkest hours ever in independent Cuban journalism," Rivero said. The founder and editor of the independent press agency, Cuba Press, Rivero made his comments over a telephone hookup at the recent Inter American Press Association (IAPA) midyear meeting in Cancun, Mexico, because once again his request for a visa had been denied.

After working for years to eke out a small political "space" in which to practice free journalism, he said, independents began to be subjected to a new wave of detentions, harassment, and intimidation last autumn when the summit of Spanish-speaking nations focused international attention on Cuba's human-rights record.

It's only going to get worse, Rivero added, now that Fidel Castro's government is obsessed with the case of Elián Gonzalez, the 6-year-old who last Thanksgiving survived the shipwreck that killed his mother on their voyage from Cuba to the United States.

Political smokescreen

"We feel we will continue to have the mass buzzing of propaganda against us and the Cuban exiles abroad as the government tries to lay a political smokescreen over independent journalists and to close this small space we have worked out," he said.

Independent journalists in Cuba face every sort of oppression short of outright assassination. Two journalists, Bernardo Arévalo Padrón and Jesús Díaz Hernández, are serving jail sentences of six years and four years, respectively, for "criminal contempt" of Castro. A year-old press law provides for even more severe punishments. In recent months, the government attitude seems to be that any law will do for silencing journalists: Reporter Victor Rolando Arroyo was sentenced to six years in jail for "hoarding" toys he was distributing to poor children in Pinar del Río. Another favorite tactic is placing reporters under house arrest to prevent them from covering events that could prove embarrassing to the government. Upwards of two dozen journalist were subjected to that treatment in the past six months, according to reports gathered by IAPA and others.

Cuban authorities often get physical, too, either by police mistreating detained journalists or, more often, by turning loose pro-government thugs on reporters as they work.

"The darkest stain on freedom of expression in the Americas is Cuba," declares Rafael Molina, director of Listín Diario in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and chairman of IAPA's committee on freedom of the press.

Cuba these days is equally hostile to foreign press. Last December, the government first refused to let anyone from The Miami Herald join other members of the National Conference of Editorial Writers (NCEW) on a scheduled visit to Cuba. When the NCEW protested, Cuba revoked visas for the entire group. IAPA's current president, Houston Chronicle Vice President and Managing Editor Tony Pederson, says Cuban authorities still have not responded to the association's request in February to send a delegation to discuss and investigate complaints of free-press violations.

Despite the difficulties, the work of independent journalists is finding new venues abroad. IAPA has launched a Web site, http://cuba.sipiapa.org that includes a weekly column from Rivero and dispatches from Cuba Press in Havana. "With the power of the Internet, we'll help improve the situation of the independent press in Cuba," says Ricardo Trotti, coordinator for the IAPA's press freedom committee.

Publicity helps, independent journalist Rivero said. "I know as a journalist who has been jailed and talks with jailed journalists how important it is to get solidarity from the IAPA," said Rivero, who is the association's regional vice president for Cuba.