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CONTACT: Laura Ingalls in Washington,  1-202-747-7035 

Freedom House Urges Cuba to Free Political Prisoners on Black Spring Anniversary.   

Washington – March 18, 2009 – Freedom House calls on the Cuban government to release all political prisoners, including 55 activists and independent journalists who were arrested in the Black Spring crackdown on this day six years ago. The Cuban Commission on Human Rights estimates that there are more than 200 political prisoners in Cuba.

"Political prisoners in Cuba face degrading conditions that include both physical and psychological abuse, while their families endure harassment and intimidation at the hands of Cuba's security forces," said Jennifer Windsor, Freedom House executive director. "Freedom House urges Cuba's leadership to free these prisoners whose only crime is exercising their basic human rights."  

On March 18, 2003 the Cuban government lashed out against Cubans who had been active in the Varela Project, a petition campaign aimed at expanding the rights of citizens under the current Cuban constitution. The so-called Black Spring arrests sought to silence proponents of free speech and expression and concluded with the arrests of more than 90 civilians throughout the island. More than 70 of those arrested were handed sentences of up to 30 years in prison following a series of sham trials.

Last week, Freedom House brought two former political prisoners who were incarcerated during the Black Spring to Geneva to participate in the United Nations Human Rights Council session. The Cuban government released and deported Alejandro González Raga and José Gabriel Ramón Castillo in 2008. Both now live in exile in Spain.

Raga and Castillo were joined in Geneva by Berta Bueno, one of the Ladies in White or Damas de Blanco, a group of wives of those imprisoned in the Black Spring who regularly protest for their release. The Cuban activists met with representatives from more than a dozen country missions, as well as with United Nations special rapporteurs and working groups. Manuela Carmena Castrillo, chair of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, told the activists that the working group is aware of these arbitrary detentions in Cuba and would press the Cuban government for access to the island.

Cuba is one of 17 countries that Freedom House ranks among the world's most repressive regimes in its annual Worst of the Worst report. The government severely limits the scope for private discussion, suppresses opposition political activity, impedes independent organizing and censors or punishes any criticism of the state.

"Cuba should take immediate steps to live up to its obligations under the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it signed last year," said Windsor. "Under that covenant, Cuba agreed to uphold its citizens' rights to freely choose their political status, but average Cubans have yet to see any change on the ground."

The country is ranked Not Free in the 2009 edition of Freedom in the World, Freedom House's survey of political rights and civil liberties, and in the 2008 version of Freedom of the Press.

For more information on Cuba, visit:

Freedom in the World 2009: Overview

Freedom in the World 2008: Cuba
Freedom of the Press 2008: Cuba

Worst of the Worst 2009

Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world, has been monitoring political rights and civil liberties in Cuba since 1972.

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