Cuba: Overview on current Human Rights situation in Cuba, including reasons for possible flight at this time

Unless otherwise quoted, the following information can be found among the attachments listed below.

While fundamental political changes are taking place throughout most Socialist countries, Cuba remains under the firm leadership of Fidel Castro and its 30-year old one party system. The Soviet policies of Perestroika and Glasnost have been rejected by the Cuban leadership, while its former allies in Eastern Europe have turned their backs to it in international fora and virtually ended their economic relationship with the island, causing a shortage of goods and hard currency.

In the context of increasing international isolation and acute economic problems, criticism from local human rights movements has been neutralized through the imprisonment of its leading members. A gradual increase in tolerance, both religious and political, reportedly began reversing towards the end of 1989. Several human rights activists, including members of pacifist groups, are reportedly facing imprisonment under different charges. Americas Watch, in telephone communications with the IRBDC on 26 April 1990 and 8 June 1990, indicated that human rights reports from Cuba have become increasingly difficult to obtain in recent months, in part because human rights advocates have been arrested and their organizations have not been allowed to operate. Local human rights groups had been an important source of information for the international press and foreign organizations.

                Although the Catholic Church has traditionally been weaker in Cuba than throughout Latin America, a country where no political parties other than the ruling one are allowed soon saw some of its people channelling their political grievances through the relative safety of the religious institution. Bishops sent the government petitions on social and political reform, Archbishops met with Fidel Castro, and Catholic laymen participated in illegal human rights organizations. The relative religious opening, regarded also as a "benign neglect" which allowed a gradual increase in religious practice, included a mid-1989 invitation of The Pope to visit Cuba, permission to import a few thousand Bibles and allowing religious processions.

Americas Watch, as communicated to the IRBDC by telephone on 26 April 1990, indicated that efforts had been made by both the Cuban Government and the Catholic Church to improve relations in preparation for a possible visit to Cuba by the Pope in the near future. In a more recent telephone communication with the IRBDC (8 June 1990), Americas Watch indicated that the Pope's visit had been postponed until 1991 or later, and that a new "wrinkle" in relations between the Cuban government and the Catholic Church was caused by a recent speech by Fidel Castro in which the Church was strongly criticized. According to one report, the speech was interpreted as a warning against the Church's participation in domestic politics. Americas Watch has received reports regarding the arrest in early 1990 of three Catholic church workers who were also leaders of a movement under the name of "Liberación" (liberation), which apparently worked for improving living conditions, including human rights. A representative of the National Association of Cuban-Canadians in Ottawa stated on a telephone communication with the IRBDC on 6 June 1990 that the Pope's visit to Cuba has been indefinitely postponed as the Cuban government is concerned about a recently increasing religious fervour. Latinamerica Press reported in its 21 June 1990 issue that, overturning a decision taken earlier this year, the Cuban government has again banned religious processions.

Attachments from the Christian Science Monitor and the Caribbean Report state that Fidel Castro has purged the Cuban army to eliminate possible dissent, suggesting also that the execution of General Ochoa and other military for their alleged participation in drug trafficking may have had political motives.

A subject related with refugee claims and flight is the freedom of leaving and returning to Cuba. As indicated in the attached responses to information requests and attached information, government permission is required to leave, and attempting to leave the country illegally can result in imprisonment under various charges. According to the Americas Watch report Human Rights in Cuba, people who have sought asylum at foreign embassies in Cuba (before the recent events described in attached articles) have been sentenced to terms of up to 45 years in prison under various charges.

Additional information on the above and other subjects can be found in the attached documents. Please find attached the following:

-Responses to Information Requests CUB3093 and CUB5187;

-Jailing the Human Rights Movement (Washington, D.C.: Americas Watch, March 1990);

-Organization of American States, Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 1988-1989: Cuba (Transcript published by the Cuban American National Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1990);

-"Crowds turn out for Cuba's Patron Saint", from The Washington Post, 8 May 1990;

-"La vie est insupportable à Cuba, dit danseuse-étoile fugitive", from Le Devoir, 6 August 1990;

-"Violation des Droits de l'homme", from La Presse, 7 March 1990;

-"La révolte des cadets cubains", from Le Point, 5 March 1990;

-"M. Fidel Castro menace d'écrasement toute velléité d'opposition", from Le Monde, 30 January 1990;

-from The Globe and Mail: "Cuba announces arrest of human-rights activists", 13 March 1990; "3 Cubans take refuge in Swiss mission, 25 in Havana now seeking asylum in European delegations", 24 July 1990; "Cubans with visas may leave, Castro says", 27 July 1990; "Fidel Castro is under pressure but his appeal remains strong among the people of capitalist Latin America", 2 August 1990;

-"Uneasiness in Cuba", from The London Free Press, 28 July 1990;

-"Encarcelados en Cuba tres activistas católicos", from El Nuevo Herald, 14 March 1990;

-from The Wall Street Journal: "How Cuba's `Paid' Prisoners Become Modern Slaves", 9 September 1988; "Castro remains firmly in control of Cuba", 19 April 1990;

-from The Ottawa Citizen: "Major Cuban crackdown on dissent under way, activist says", 15 March 1990; "Fidel gambles on repression", 17 March 1990;

-Urgent Action (London, Amnesty International), 13 June 1990;

-"Castro faces deeper economic crisis", from The Christian Science Monitor, 30 July 1990, p. 3;

-from The Economist: "Let them eat coconuts", 3 February 1990, pp. 41-42; "The self-laceration of Cuba", 28 July 1990, pp. 31-32;

-from Caribbean Report (London: Latin American Newsletters, monthly): 26 July 1990, pp. 1, 8; 21 June 1990, pp. 1, 3, 8; 17 May 1990, pp. 2, 8; 5 April 1990, pp. 1-2, 8; 1 March 1990, pp. 4-5, 8; 25 January 1990, pp. 1-2; 7 December 1990, pp. 1-3; 28 September 1990, pp. 1-2; 24 August 1990, pp. 1-2;

-from Latinamerica Press (Lima: Noticias Aliadas, bi-weekly): 12 July 1990, pp. 2, 7; 5 July 1990, p. 5; 21 June 1990, pp. 2, 6; 14 june 1990, p. 2; 31 May 1990, p. 2; 19 April 1990, p. 2; 29 March 1990, p. 2; 22 March 1990, p. 7; 15 March 1990, p. 2; 8 March 1990, p. 7; 15 February 1990, p. 2; 21 December 1989, p. 6;