Cuba update - August 2020

by Sue Bingham, Country Coordinator, Cuba   
North America & Caribbean Regional Team Coordinator

1. POC Roberto Quiñones Haces

• Roberto’s sentence should end in September, so please do have one last push keeping up the pressure on the authorities to release him.

Write to President Miguel Díaz Canel via email despacho@presidencia.gob.cu calling for Roberto Quiñones Haces to be released immediately and unconditionally as he is a prisoner of conscience, at risk of contacting Covid 19 due to health problems and overcrowded prison conditions.

• Thank you to all those who participated in the FATHERS’ DAY SOLIDARITY ACTION for the family of Roberto Quiñones Haces in June. Many replies have been received from the family, who are very grateful indeed for your messages of support. Please continue to send solidarity messages to freequinones@gmail.com

2. News from Reuters in Havana - Cuba prevents protest over police killing of Black man JUNE 30, 2020   A raft of Cuban dissidents, artists and journalists said …. that state security agents had staked out their homes to prevent them from attending planned protests over the killing by police of a young Black man. At least 40 dissident activists were also detained by police, according to exiled rights group Cubalex, with some later released. Those included performance artist Tania Bruguera in Havana and the leader of Cuba’s most active opposition group, José Daniel Ferrer, who had been under house arrest in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.

…The calls for protests on Tuesday were triggered by news last week that police had shot and killed a 27-year-old unarmed Black man, Hansel Hernandez.

Full article: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cuba-racism-protests-idUKKBN2413R9

3. Human Rights Watch report July 23, 2020  Cuba: Repressive Rules for Doctors Working Abroad - Receiving Governments Should Press for Change

Medics and paramedics from Cuba pose upon arrival at the Malpensa airport of Milan, Italy, Sunday, March 22, 2020. © 2020 AP Photo/Antonio Calanni.

The Cuban government imposes draconian rules on doctors deployed in medical missions globally that violate their fundamental rights, Human Rights Watch said today. Governments seeking support from Cuban health workers to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic should press Cuban authorities to modify applicable regulations and laws that violate the right to privacy, freedom of expression and association, liberty, and movement, among others.
Since March, Cuba has sent roughly 1,500 medical professionals across the world to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic, joining approximately 30,000 Cuban health workers already deployed abroad. Cuban government regulations provide that workers may be disciplined for being “friends” with people who hold “hostile or contrary views to the Cuban revolution.” Health workers may also face criminal penalties if they “abandon” their jobs.
Full report: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/23/cuba-repressive-rules-doctors-working-abroad#

All best wishes,

Sue Bingham

Country Coordinator, Cuba   
North America & Caribbean Regional Team Coordinator