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The Violation of Human Rights in Modern Cuba: Judicial Injustice and Depravity

of Basic Human Needs In the Cuban Prison System

Sean Clark

HMR 161

Prof. Schlotterbeck

28 July 2015

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Cuban government is one of the last four remaining socialist nations of the Cold War, and it

is peculiarly stable despite rampant support for reform within the country and dissatisfaction with

the majority Communist party that supports Raúl Castro. The Cuban government maintains na-

tionwide authority by controlling the national media coverage, by banning all forms of public dis-

sidence, and (should all else fail) via aggressive imprisonment strategies to eliminate all per-

sons who represent a threat to the communist state.

Cuba has utilized a systematic program of arbitrary detention and indefinite trials to maintain the

second largest prison program in the modern world. The prisons are overcrowded and not

meant to support the number of prisoners that they contain. Many of these prisons do not con-

tain the amenities needed for basic human living, and these conditions are used as a form of

punishment on the prisoners. Prisoners report being beaten by prison guards, deprived of light

and heat, and starved during their prison sentence. Many of these prisoners are being held with-

out a definite release date, and some prisoners do not have a set trial date to receive a proper

sentencing.

Human Rights Watch has an extensive record of human rights violations committed by the

Cuban prison system, namely violations of articles 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, and 25 of

the Universal Declaration of Human Rights set forth in 1948 by the United Nations. The prison

system is a stabilizing force in Cuba that mitigates any insurrection within the communist state,

and remedy of the human rights violations involved necessitate reform of the prison system and

judicial system of Cuba. The Cuban government tends to deny the severity of these accusa-

tions, and in the past, it has opened the prisons to foreign journalists with mixed results. At

times, the prisons seemed adequate enough to house prisoners on a long term basis, and on

other occasions, the prisons appeared to be grossly inadequate or hiding behind a staged fa-

cade of adequacy.

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Former and current prisoners of Cuba such as the Americans, Douglas Moore and Alan Gross,

and Cuban citizens, Armando Valladares and Yamil Domínguez, provide evidence that corrobo-

rates the claims made by HWR against the Cuban government. Videos have emerged from

within Cuba’s prisons that document the conditions that the prisoners are living in and also cor-

roborate these accusations of human rights violations.

President Barack Obama and president Raúl Castro have welcomed the first political discussion

between their respective countries of the century. Known as the “Cuban Thaw,” this series of

diplomatic negotiations has already introduced the reopening of political embassies between the

two nations and the release of political prisoners on both nations’ soil. As the modern first world

continues its diplomatic negotiations with Cuba, it will gain insight into what had been previously

cut off to parties outside the nation’s borders; the Cuban Thaw has the potential to substantially

validate the claims made against the Cuban government. As the home of the central headquar-

ters of the United Nations and as a claimed proponent of human rights, the United States will be

expected to address the alleged rights violations that Cuba has committed.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

IMPERIALISM TO COMMUNISM: 1800s to Modern Cuba

Cuba began its emergence into the era of globalization as a sugar plantation controlled

by the Spanish. Located in a warm Caribbean environment as the westernmost destination of

tides from coastal Africa, it enabled rapid transport of ships both from Africa to Cuba and from

Cuba back to the Spanish homeland.1 The Spaniard's abolition of slavery in 1820 led to an un-

derground slave trade that introduced a sharp increase in crime rate and made Cuba a hotbed

for pirates and buccaneers.2 A war for independence in 1868 resulted in slavery existing in Cuba

1Blouet, B. (2010). Latin America and the Caribbean: A systematic and regional survey (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.2 “Havana, Chile” hegewisch.net. Web. 21 July 2015.

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legally until 1886, but the decades of illegal slave trade made had already impacted the stability

of the nation.3

United States expansionism in the 1800s brought civil unrest to Cuba, as locals feared

that Americans would invade the island if it were not incorporated peacefully. In 1898, the U.S.

finally validated this suspicion with its entrance into the Cuban War of Independence, which also

instigated the short-lived Spanish-American War.4 The war finally resulted in withdrawal of Spain

from Cuba, but the Platt Amendment of 1901 indicated that the U.S. intended to oversee Cuba

as a benevolent overseer in the same fashion that Spain did.5 This began an era of civil unrest

in Cuba akin to similar cases elsewhere within Latin America; the local inhabitants wanted politi-

cal reform, and intervention by a superpower (in this case the United States) would work to quell

that rebellious upheaval. The establishment of a Soviet embassy in 1943 marked a shift in

Cuban politics and the emergence of a more organized countermovement to U.S. imperialism in

the form of communism. Cuba now had two ideologies fighting for political dominance. By 1953,

a young Fidel Castro had assimilated enough supporters for his Communist movement to stage

an uprising.6 By 1959, with the help of the Argentinian Marxist Che Guevera, Castro became the

Premier of Cuba and he retained this power (with a change in title to President) until he stepped

down in 2008, transferring power to Raúl Castro.7

THE REIGN OF THE CASTRO FAMILY

The history of Cuba proceeding 1959 is of utmost relevance because that year marks

the emergence of the Castro family as the controlling power of Cuba, whom maintain power to

this day. Fidel Castro maintained control of Cuba under a pseudo-electorate identifying as a

3 Nigel, H. (n.d.). Slavery and Rebellion in Cuba. Web. Retrieved July 25, 2015.4 Nigel, H. (n.d.). Ten Years War (1868-1878). Web. Retrieved July 25, 2015.5 Platt Amendment (1903). (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2015.6 Fidel Castro: Cuba's revolutionary leader. (n.d.). Web. Retrieved July 25, 2015.7 Profile: Raul Castro - BBC News. (n.d.). Web. Retrieved July 25, 2015.

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“single-party democracy.” His first seventeen years were spent as Prime Minister of Cuba, and

the 1976 Constitution saw his title be changed to President of Cuba.8

U.S.-Cuban relations after the rise of the Communist Party of Cuba have been historically

heated. Castro replaced a U.S. supporting government led by Fulgencio Batista.9 Cuba re-

mained a close ally of the Soviet Union during the Cold War and tensions between the U.S. and

U.S.S.R. made the Cuban regime seem too dangerous for the U.S. to passively defend against.

The United States made a final attempt at sieging the Cuban capital in 1961 with the Bay of

Pigs Invasion, but they were ultimately defeated by Castro’s army. The subsequent Cuban Mis-

sile Crisis in 1962 led the world to the closest it came to nuclear warfare in the entirety of the

Cold War. Despite being the key territory in the crisis, it was an insignificant political party during

negotiations between American and Soviet government officials. Cuba reacted with increased

hostility to the U.S. and a new distrust in the Soviet Union. This event ultimately resulted in the

cessation of economic and diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States.

Since the Cuban Missile Crisis, the embargo has typically been reinforced, rather than

weakened. Cuba was marked a state sponsor of terrorism in 1982.10 In 1992, another round of

embargoes in the Cuba Democracy Act from Washington D.C. increased the tension between

the two nations.11 The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996 then established the

conditions for relations to be reinstated, namely a new round of truly democratic election had to

take place that did not involve the Castro family.12 This has not yet happened, as was earlier

noted with the succession by Fidel Castro’s brother Raúl. George H.W. Bush’s son and 43rd

8 The Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, 1976. (1976, February 24). Retrieved July 27, 2015.9 Fulgencio Batista | biography - Cuban dictator. (2014, July 7). Retrieved July 27, 2015.10 Sullivan, M. (2013). Cuba and the State Sponsors of Terrorism List. Congressional Research Service.11 Wong, K. (n.d.). The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992: The Extraterrestrial Scope of Section 1706(a).12 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act of 1996. (1996). 104th U.S. Con-gress.

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President of the U.S. George W. Bush later reinforced his father’s policy. It wasn’t until the elec-

tion of Barack Obama that Cuban-American relations finally began to open themselves up.

POLITICAL THAW: POLITICAL DIPLOMACY AND ADDRESSING HUMAN RIGHTS

President Obama and Raul Castro have offered the opportunity for better diplomatic re-

lations. For the first time in half a century, the two presidents sat down with each other to dis-

cuss the future of their diplomatic relationship. Cuban-American relations were set back by the

Cuban government’s arrest of Alan Gross, a visitor on behalf of the U.S. Agency for Interna-

tional Development (USAID) to Havana in 2009. Gross was sentenced to 15 years in Cuban

prison for espionage against the communist state, a common reason for political imprisonment

in Cuba.13 He was not released until 2014, when policy talks began between the two nations and

Gross was released as a gesture of good faith amid another prisoner swap. During this time,

President Obama and Raúl Castro publicly announced plans to reopen diplomatic relations.14

On July 20th of this year (2015), the U.S. reopened its embassy in Havanna, which hadn’t been

under direct American control since 1961.

As it currently stands, Cuba is one of only four countries that retain its status as a com-

munist nation, and it is by far the closest neighbor to America, a key capitalist party in the Cold

War. Cuba has managed to overcome a trend in which communist states collapse on them-

selves with internal political dissidence. Castro maintains this power both by the dominance of

his governing party and by the systems and laws in place to quell minority parties from gaining

support. All political parties are banned from campaigning or public political speech, making in-

cumbents typically uncontested. All media is controlled and produced through the government,

with just five news channels existing in the country, all run by the government.15 Should those

13 Farley, R. (2014, December 23). What Was Alan Gross Doing in Cuba? Retrieved July 25, 2015.14 Baker, P. (2014, December 17). U.S. to Restore Full Relations With Cuba, Erasing a Last Trace of Cold War Hostility. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html15 Cuba: Freedom of the Press. (2012). Retrieved July 28, 2015.

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measures fail and dissidents do gain substantial support, Cuba has its police and prison system

to silence dissidence, and its prison system allegedly subjects detainees to inhumane condi-

tions.

Amid these allegations, Cuba has identified and released fifty-three political prisoners as

a gesture to the American government that it intends to adjust its internal policies.16 It released

these prisoners in 2014, but it is only on the Cuban government’s word that these consist of all

the political prisoners within its prison system, and evidence from third party activist groups ar-

gues that this represents a minute fraction of the political prisoner population. It remains to be

seen how the recent events will affect the Cuban prison system, but with more international ob-

servation than ever, Cuba is likely to experience higher scrutiny than it ever did before. Their

treatment of prisoners will be under scrutiny, as their history of prisoner treatment is question-

able at best.

ANALYSIS

The relations between Cuba and the United States are considered when analyzing

Cubans history of humans rights violations because this issue originates from political and eco-

nomic issues involved in the Cold War, which America had an extensive influence in. As the

United States and Cuba begin to open their borders to each other, the first world will be closely

scrutinizing both country’s actions; the United States has received drastic criticism itself for con-

tinued existence of the Guantanamo Bay detainee camp and Cuba has a reputation for equally

poor treatment of its own prisoners. Cuba’s gesture of releasing fifty-three political prisoners and

Alan Gross indicate that it is ready to at least marginally address these violations, and if Cuba

intends to open itself up to the world then it can no longer ignore these accusations.

Cuba is peculiar because it is a remaining remnant of the Cold War and the last existing

dictatorship to use Marxist ideology, but surveys of the population do not present a country with

16 Cuba releases 53 political prisoners as part of U.S. deal. (2015, January 12). Retrieved July 25, 2015.

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particular stability. Over half of all Cubans surveyed would like to leave their country perma-

nently. Half of those potential emigrants particularly wish to leave for America. Far more alarm-

ing is that sixty-nine percent of Cubans under thirty-four years old wish to leave, which does not

bode well for the country's future. Eighty-one percent of Cubans are dissatisfied with their eco-

nomic system and fifty-eight percent of people surveyed disapproved of the Communist Party

that ran the government. In fact, American president Barack Obama has a higher approval rat-

ing in Cuba than their own president Raùl Castro.17

Cuba is plagued by a history of instability, and even in modern day the populace exhibits

dissatisfaction with their country. A country without the support of the people requires another

influential power to maintain stability, and Cuba maintains this stability with a powerful police

and judiciary force that has very unrestricted power. By the nature of the laws in place, control

over all media or open political expression, and with an unrestrained judicial system, Cuba has

maintained its stability by being a modern day police state. Cuba’s most powerful weapon in

maintaining order is its prison system. They can withhold a prisoner without trial for an indefinite

amount of time. The Cuban government has arranged their laws so that virtually anyone can be

arrested that is seen as a threat. Because of the excessive arrests, the prisons the suspects are

sent to are overpopulated and poorly maintained. Worse yet, the prisoners are subjected to tor-

ture techniques in order to punish them, in order to maintain submission to prison guards, and to

provoke false admissions of guilt.

I. INDEFINITE SENTENCING WITHOUT TRIAL

Cuba has developed a massive prison system to deal with one of the largest per capita

prison populations in the world. It maintains the second largest prison population in the world,

only beaten by the United States.18 If drug-related offenses are removed from the U.S. statistics

17 Poll: Majority of Cubans welcome warmer relations with the U.S. (2015, April 8). Retrieved July 27, 2015.18 Cuba and the United States among the countries with highest rate of prisoners. (2015, July 27). Retrieved July 28, 2015.

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(this makes up nearly half of all offenses), Cuba is the largest prison population in the world per

capita with 510 prisoners per 100,000. It is estimated by Human Rights Watch that 65,000 peo-

ple are currently held in detention, up from Cuba's publicly reported figure of 57,337 prisoners in

2012.19 The Cuban government hasn't offered recent figures to the public past 2012.

Unique to Cuba as opposed to its American neighbors, many of Cuba’s prisoners are im-

prisoned without a judicial sentencing or a set trial date. In 2012, Cuba conducted 3,600 arbi-

trary detentions over the course of just nine months.20 The grounds on which arrests take place

are similarly questionable, albeit for varied reasons [politically fueled arbitrary detention is ad-

dressed in the second section of this analysis]. Yaoni Sanchez visited Combinado del Este and

encountered two Italian tourists, Vicenza Luigi Sartorio and Angelo Malavasi, accused of murder

of a 12 year old female prostitute on an island they claim to have not even visited. These two

prisoners had been awaiting their trial for over a year when Yaomi had spoken with them, as is

typical in the Cuban judicial system.21

The Cuban government does not effectively offer an impartial justice system to its na-

tion. Prisoners are ultimately detained at the discretion of the police, and this absence of a fair

trial violates article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which identifies

the right to a "fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal" as a basic hu-

man right.22 This also interferes with Article 8's declaration of the right to "effective remedy by

the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him."

II. IMPRISONMENT OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

19 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014: Cuba. (2014). Retrieved July 25, 2015.20 World Report 2014: Cuba. (2013, December 17). Retrieved July 28, 2015.21 Sanchez, Y. (2011, January 27). A Visit to Cuba's Largest Prison. Retrieved July 28, 2015.22 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Declaration, Human Rights Charter, The Un and Human Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved July 25, 2015.

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According to Amnesty International, there were five confirmed political prisoners whom

were “detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.”23 The Cuban govern-

ment in 2012 detained 6,602 prisoners for political reasons. The Cuban government’s Criminal

Code in Articles 72-90 make dangerousness an illegal act and simply being an individual “who

habitually breaks the rules of social co-existence or disturbs the order of the community…is con-

sidered to be socially dangerous by virtue of being anti-social conduct.”24 This law interferes with

the UDHR's articles 7 and 9, which protect individuals from discriminatory acts by the govern-

ment and arbitrary detention, respectively. Several examples exist in which these laws are also

used to interfere with Article 19 of the UDHR which guarantees the right to freedom of expres-

sion. Emilio Planas Robert and Iván Fernández Depestre were incarcerated for offenses of the

state of dangerousness. Three brother activists in Cuba were brought up on similar charges;

Alexeis, Vianco, and Django Vargas Martín were arrested for habitual propensity for generating

disorder. The three brothers had their trial put on hold, but they remain in prison until their sen-

tencing. All the preceeding examples were involved in some form of political rallying.

Poor imprisonment conditions and torture, better analyzed in section III, was used to “re-

habilitate” political dissidents. Armando Valladares, a political protester that simply refused to

display pro-government paraphernalia at his work desk, was arrested as a terrorist and kept in

solitary confinement for nine years.25 He was beaten and starved in order to coax him to be “re-

habilitated,” but his continue refusal led to him being imprisoned for over twenty-two years. The

Cuban government has responded by denying his claims and labeling him an enemy of the

state.

[Related to the pattern of political imprisonment by the Cuban government, many Cuban

political prisoners are banned from traveling out of the country. Under these circumstances, they

23 Amnesty International. (2013, August 5). Retrieved July 28, 2015.24 Inter-American Yearbook on Human Rights. (1998). Martinus Nijhoff.25 24, A. (1986, August 24). Torture a Frequent Companion in Cuba Prisons, Ex-Inmates Say. Retrieved July 28, 2015.

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are considered by the government as “serving their sentence outside of prison.”26 Withholding

these citizens’ right to travel maintains their statuses as prisoners, despite being held outside of

prison walls. In many circumstances, these seizures of liberty to travel are indefinite. These pris-

oners are victims of human rights violations related to interference with Article 13-2 of the

UDHR, but their circumstance is beyond the scope of this dossier.]

III. IMPRISONMENT CONDITIONS AND THE USE OF TORTURE

The Cuban prison has notoriously poor sanitation and lacks the amenities of basic living

standards (e.g. running water, waste disposal, insulation).27 In addition to the poor conditions ex-

isting within these prisons, the prison system is also grossly over capacity with the second

largest prison population per capita in the world at 512 inmates per 100,000 capita. A nine by

twelve cell will typically have three inmates. In harsher cases such as that of Yamin Domínguez,

there have been alleged cases of a 117 square foot prison cell containing nine inmates.28

In relation to the two Italians accused of murdering a prostitute in section I of the analy-

sis, a third suspect named Simone Pini was arrested in relation to the case an signed an admis-

sion of guilt. He retracted this admission, stating that he was forced to admit guilt amid torture

and death threats.29 The Cuban government has been accused of using their prison system to

break suspects. The Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Commission on

Human Rights (IACHR) provides evidence that the Cuban prison system utilizes sensory depri-

vation and isolation tactics to generate prisoner submission and admittances of guilt from pris-

oners.30 Many of these techniques utilize the poor conditions of the cells being used, namely the

lack of windows or air circulation for solitary confinement and temperature manipulation tactics.

A former prisoner named Roberto de Jesús Guerra accuses the Cuban prison system for apply-

26 Inter-American Yearbook on Human Rights. (1998). Martinus Nijhoff.27 Rainsford, S. (2013, May 1). A glimpse inside Cuba's prisons - BBC News. Retrieved July 25, 2015.28 Domínguez, Y. (2010, March 7). Combinado del Este. Retrieved July 28, 2015.29 Brogioni, S. (2011). Accusato di omicidiodopo festino hard a Cuba. Retrieved July 28, 2015.30 CUBA Torture, cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment; extrajudicial executions. (2009, November 6). Retrieved July 28, 2015.

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ing “the procedure of torture by confinement under extremely cold temperatures.”31 The Council

of Rapporteurs reports that in 2008 there were seventy-one deaths in twenty-one prisons that

were attributed to the application of these techniques. Testimony by Armando Valladares, who

as it was earlier stated spent nine years in solitary confinement, indicates that prisoners who did

not forfeit submission to the prison guards, labeled plantados, were given harsher treatment and

less food. All these situations involved violations of Article 5 of the UDHR, which explicitly bans

the application of torture or inhuman treatment of prisoners.

IV. CONCLUDING REMARKS

It remains to be seen if the Cuban government will address and cease conductance of

the violations of human rights that they have been accused of. The opening of diplomatic dis-

cussion between president Raul Castro (the first new president in nearly fifty years) with Presi-

dent Obama, a president with an extensive history of proponency and criticism of human rights,

offers the best opportunity in half a century for the first world to understand the current condi-

tions within Cuba and address the human rights being violated. Cuba's prison system has been

utilized to maintain order in a political system that historically has failed, and it remains to be

seen whether the country could actually sustain itself in its current form without committing vio-

lations of human rights. Whether the country welcomes reform or not, it is more likely than ever

before to see drastic policy changes in favor of human rights in the incoming years.

31 Cuba cometió 963 detenciones arbritrarias de opositores durante junio | Cuba, Raúl Castro, Libertad de expresión. (2014, July 1). Retrieved July 28, 2015.

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WORKS CITED

Amnesty International. (2013, August 5). Retrieved July 28, 2015.

Baker, P. (2014, December 17). U.S. to Restore Full Relations With Cuba, Erasing a Last Trace

of Cold War Hostility. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/

2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html

Blouet, B. (2010). Latin America and the Caribbean: A systematic and regional survey (6th ed.).

Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Brogioni, S. (2011). Accusato di omicidiodopo festino hard a Cuba. Retrieved July 28, 2015.

The Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, 1976. (1976, February 24). Retrieved July 27, 2015.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014: Cuba. (2014). Retrieved July 25, 2015.

Cuba and the United States among the countries with highest rate of prisoners. (2015, July 27).

Retrieved July 28, 2015.

Cuba cometió 963 detenciones arbritrarias de opositores durante junio | Cuba, Raúl Castro,

Libertad de expresión. (2014, July 1). Retrieved July 28, 2015.

Cuba: Freedom of the Press. (2012). Retrieved July 28, 2015.

Cuba releases 53 political prisoners as part of U.S. deal. (2015, January 12). Retrieved July 25,

2015.

CUBA Torture, cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment; extrajudicial executions. (2009,

November 6). Retrieved July 28, 2015.

Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act of 1996. (1996). 104th U.S. Congress.

Domínguez, Y. (2010, March 7). Combinado del Este. Retrieved July 28, 2015.

Farley, R. (2014, December 23). What Was Alan Gross Doing in Cuba? Retrieved July 25,

2015.

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Fidel Castro: Cuba's revolutionary leader. (n.d.). Web. Retrieved July 25, 2015.

Fulgencio Batista | biography - Cuban dictator. (2014, July 7). Retrieved July 27, 2015.

“Havana, Chile” hegewisch.net. Web. 21 July 2015.

Inter-American Yearbook on Human Rights. (1998). Martinus Nijhoff.

Nigel, H. (n.d.). Slavery and Rebellion in Cuba. Web. Retrieved July 25, 2015.

Nigel, H. (n.d.). Ten Years War (1868-1878). Web. Retrieved July 25, 2015.

Platt Amendment (1903). (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2015.

Poll: Majority of Cubans welcome warmer relations with the U.S. (2015, April 8). Retrieved July

27, 2015.

Profile: Raul Castro - BBC News. (n.d.). Web. Retrieved July 25, 2015.

Rainsford, S. (2013, May 1). A glimpse inside Cuba's prisons - BBC News. Retrieved July 25,

2015.

Sanchez, Y. (2011, January 27). A Visit to Cuba's Largest Prison. Retrieved July 28, 2015.

Sullivan, M. (2013). Cuba and the State Sponsors of Terrorism List. Congressional Research

Service.

Torture a Frequent Companion in Cuba Prisons, Ex-Inmates Say. (1986, August 24). Retrieved

July 25, 2015.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, Declaration of Human Rights, Human

Rights Declaration, Human Rights Charter, The Un and Human Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved July 25,

2015.

Wong, K. (n.d.). The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992: The Extraterrestrial Scope of Section

1706(a).

World Report 2014: Cuba. (2013, December 17). Retrieved July 28, 2015.

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Case File

The Cuban government in 2013 allowed for foreign journalists to visit federal prisons and see

the conditions inside. Journalists were welcomed by the prisoners and workers, and some were

welcomed to questioning. Inside the prison, three inmates were kept to a cell and cells did not

have running water (typical in much of Cuba). Sentencing of prisoners led to radically different

punishments, with petty theft leading to years in prison. Medical attention within the prison was

also questionably suitable.

The prison was completely prepared to accept visitors, as was indicative by the gifts and perfor-

mances prepared by the prisoners. It is very likely that the prison was presented in a better than

typical state to misrepresent the prison to the public, as Cuba knew the worldwide popularity of

BBC and wanted to appeal to the world. Even behind this performance, certain problems could

not be hidden: the “actors” were in prison for wildly different severities of crime and the prison

was clearly overfilled.

This resource is valuable because it presents a best case scenario for the conditions within the

Cuban system. Even with somewhat acceptable conditions, clear inconsistencies appear in the

prison that give evidence to the accusations of inhumane imprisonments.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-22365244

VIDEO

In this video, inmates secretly recorded the conditions of Prisión de Guanajay in Habana. Grime

can be seen on the floor inches thick and the toilet in the video was a simple hole in the ground.

Sewage was leaking throughout the prison and sinks were filled with decaying food. An Ameri-

can named Douglas Moore gives a detailed account of his stay there, claiming to be regularly

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chained and beaten by the prison guards. He walks with a cane since entering the prison and

he has significant bruises on his body, allegedly from the prison guard beatings.

This video represents the worst conditions the prisoners could expose and could potentially be

faxed or misrepresentative of the typical Cuban prison conditions. Still, these prisoners take sig-

nificant risk to record this video and are likely to receive punishment once it is released. The

prisoners must have a motive to take the risk of filming this video, indicating the level of desper-

ation many of them have. If the first source is the argument for the best conditions of the Cuban

prison system, this is the counterargument showing the worst conditions.

This source is valuable because unlike the first source, it does not contain the bias of the Cuban

government, who had the liberty to organize the event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=41&v=aUF4fChhx80

Human Rights Watch presents a congregate of cases of unjust and arbitrary detentions within

Cuban prisons. Over nine months, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Rec-

onciliation received 3,600 reports of arbitrary detentions. The article suggests that many of

these detentions were for political dissidence (e.g. expression of free speech that contradicts

the platform of the single party government). Court cases are subjugated to the judicial and ex-

ecutive branch, often being delayed indefinitely while the accused parties are forced to stay

within prison until their hearing comes up. Some difficult prisoners were offered freedom in ex-

change for relocation to Spain.

Human Right Watch is a well known and respected resource on issues dealing with Human

Rights. They are aggressive in their pursuit of expansion of civil liberties and rights, which leads

to a seeming bias of overly harsh criticism at times, but they have also shown the capacity to

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extend that bias to first world countries that few others are willing to criticize, namely the United

States.

This article presents quantitative data on the issue that indicates that unsubstantiated imprison-

ment is common within the Cuban prison system, and this article gives a glimpse into the possi-

ble motives on behalf of the Cuban government to conduct themselves this way.

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/cuba

Human Rights Watch directly asked the Cuban government to “halt the prosecution of citizens

who are exercising the rights guaranteed under articles 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 of the UDHR,”

and were outright refused by the Cuban government. Members of a human rights group in Hol-

gúin were sentenced to three and two years in prison for insulting national symbols and causing

public disorder, both exercises of free speech. During imprisonment, one of the people impris-

oned developed a kidney infection allegedly due to bad prison conditions. Another dissident was

arrested and sent to prison after protesting the imprisonment of his fellow protesters.

In this case, Human Rights Watch gives specific examples of activists being unjustly imprisoned

by the Cuban government and gives evidence of the decrepit conditions they are exposed to

within the prison. Human Rights Watch could arguably have a bias in favor of the protesters, as

human rights activists will be inclined to support and protect people with similar motives.

This is an extremely personal account of the prison conditions by the Human Rights Watch and

it was aggressively asserting that fellow human rights activists were being unfairly treated. This

is a good opposite to the previous source which focused on statistical evidence.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/18/universal-periodic-review-hrw-submission-cuba

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Armando Valladares published a book about his experience in the Cuban prison system, specifi-

cally of the treatment he received that qualified as torture. The Cuban prisons contain ‘rehabili-

tation programs’ for political dissidents that correct behavior to be more aligned with party

ideals. Valladares asserts that many of Castro’s former comrades were now in the prison.

Those that accepted the rehabilitation received better treatment and more food. Those that did

not accept rehabilitation, labeled plantados, were tortured, starved, and given the worst condi-

tions to live in. Valladares was himself a plantado and was kept in an unlit prison cell for nine

years.

Interestingly, Sandra Levinson of the Center of Cuban Studies in New York accuses Valladares

of lying in his book and exaggerating the conditions of the prison system. Further research into

this woman’s work reveals that she is a radical that historically supported Castro’s regime, de-

spite claiming to be a human rights activist.

Valladares does have motive to lie in his book; a harsher story sells more copies. Despite this,

his testimony aligns with other ones far more than it contradicts. It is helpful to hear a personal

testimony such as this and it gives a lead on a more substantial resource, namely his book. Re-

search into Levinson also reveals the necessity in my research to understand the background of

the people writing or being interviewed, as biases can exist in very unpredictable ways, namely

a Cuban regime supporter working out of New York. One important thing to note is that this is

not a recent account of Cuban imprisonment and conditions could have changed since then for

better or worse.

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-08-24/news/mn-17397_1_cuban-prison

The U.S. Department of State yearly report on Cuba notes that no unlawful deprivation

of life was reported that year, nor were any politically-motivated disappearances. The U.S. con-

firms that it has received reports of physical abuse of detainees and prisoners. Prisons were

Clark 19

overpopulated, but the Cuban government has not released the exact number of prisoners it

has since 2012. Human Rights Watch estimates that 65,000 people are imprisoned now, up

from the reported number of 57,337 in 2012. Many prison cells lacked potable water and female

detainment facilities did not consistently supply feminine hygiene products. The U.S. also ac-

knowledges that Cuba uses arbitrary arrests to limit public expression or political dissidence.

The U.S. follows this up with acknowledgement that Cuba has a history of denial of fair

This report by the U.S. government is unique because it is released by a party looking to

open ties with its socialist neighbor. The U.S. government cannot show too much friendliness to

the nation if it is violating human rights so severely (this will reflect badly on the U.S.) but it also

has clear motives to not ignore the violations it received reports on. The lack of reported political

disappearances is unique, as politically-fueled disappearances was a unique commonality in

Latin America.

I like this source because government documents tend to be conservative in their as-

sumptions and the U.S. in this case especially has a long history of conflict with the party in-

volved. The U.S. has its own scope of human rights violations within Cuba as well, within Guan-

tanamo Bay, and so it makes analysis of this piece especially unique.

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2014&dlid=236680

Much like in the first article, Yoani Sanchez visits a Cuban prison (in this case, Combi-

nado del Este) and gives an account of what she saw. Families of the detained try to deliver as

much food as possible to their loved ones, not much of it making past the gates. Two Italian

prisoners speak with the journalist, explaining that they were accused of a murder on an island

they weren’t on. These two had been held for over a year without trial, uniquely as international

prisoners. Oftentimes countries will seek out extradition of these prisoners to, but in this case it

does not seem to be supported. The author makes a note of promising to look into these prison-

Clark 20

ers’ case, but she is limited on the resources that she can access, and upon leaving the prison

she is told by a guard that she likely will never be allowed into that prison again after her first

visit.

Yaoni is a blogger and human rights activist with an emphasis on Cuban human rights.

She is likely to be critical of Cuba in this article (she advertises her book on the subject at the

end of the article) and her critical tone is quite apparent. The Huffington Post traditionally leans

liberal and has a history of reporting supportingly in cases of human rights activism.

This article is useful because it provides an account of a Cuban citizen written in English.

This is useful because third party translations can often misconstrue the intent of the original ar-

ticle, and we have seen this with translations of the Declaration of Human Rights.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/a-visit-to-cubas-largest-_b_884930.html

Yamil Domínguez gives his account of living as a prisoner in Combinado del Este for

over two years. He lived in a 117 square foot cell with eight other prisoners. He notes a similar

state of the prison regarding sanitation; the shared living area for the prisoners, which they were

rarely given access to, to start with, contained a communal bucket to urinate in. Domínguez also

reports being beaten by a guard. He receives a doctor’s note as evidence for the abuse and re-

ports the guard, but the guard is let off after the prosecutor accused the doctor of lying.

Yamil was a Cuban born and American raised individual with a good education. Like

many other prisoners, he has been held in prison without trial for years for a crime he claims to

have never committed, in this case human trafficking. Yamil is appealing to readers to gain sup-

port for his release, and these supporters will likely find his blog through key search words re-

lated to the subject that he uses in his blog.

Clark 21

Because Domínguez is American-raised, he has a sufficient understanding of the Eng-

lish language. He is also a unique source because he wrote his account at the time of imprison-

ment and is presumably still being detained (research did not reveal his current status).

https://notoriousinjustice.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/combinado-del-este/

This source is a transcript from a presentation on the state of Cuban prisons in 2009.

The presentation focuses on the torture methods used in Cuban prisons. A marquis torture

method involved sensory deprivation, namely the use of sealed units blocked off to light (this

corroborates the story of an earlier source), segregation from other prisoners and lack of human

interaction, and psychological torture used to induce suicidal depression. This article notes the

use of torture at Guantanamo Bay by the U.S. but also qualifies that acknowledgement by stat-

ing that the torture methods used by Cuban prisons are equally bad but far less reported. The

article goes on to note cases of extrajudicial executions, something that the U.S. government

claims to have no evidence of occurring.

This presentation was first given at the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human

Rights hearing. The people he is presenting to presumably have a background understanding of

the case at hand and are expecting him to give a defense for the accusation that Cuba has vio-

lated human rights.

This is the most damning source that I have so far found, and it presents Cuban prisons

as an equivalent to Guantanamo Bay. What is far more damning is that the accusations in this

transcript align with the stories from the detained citizens in previous sources, which indicates

that the article likely has quite a bit of truth to it.

Clark 22

http://www.directorio.org/pdfdocs/2580_Directorio-%20Torture%20in%20Cuba.%20IACHR

%202009.pdf

This is a translated Spanish article from the first of July of this year. The Cuban Commis-

sion for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) reported that 963 people were

arrested for political dissidence in Cuba in the month preceding the article. Similar to the previ-

ous article, the Cuban prisons were accused of torture, namely exposure to extremely cold tem-

peratures (the previous source noted this torture method as well). The CCDHRN’s Elizardo

Sanchez claims that Cuba has 114 prisoners it internally acknowledges as having been arrested

for purely political reasons.

The CCDHRN was built specifically to improve the conditions of human rights within

Cuba, and it has a history of opposition with the Cuban government. It even mentions claims of

active aggression towards the activist group allegedly on behalf of the Cuban government. The

CCDHRN is reaching out to Spanish-speaking supporters, likely within Latin America. Because

of its history with the Cuban government, it will likely contain some degree of critical bias against

the Cuban prison system.

This is a unique source because it is the only source I use not directly targeting English

speakers. This does contain a degree of bias simply from the translation. Google’s translation

algorhithm is biased

http://www.infobae.com/2014/07/01/1577428-cuba-cometio-963-detenciones-arbritrarias-oposi-

tores-junio

Proposal

Cuba has am infamous history among Americans due to events spanning the early

1960s in the Cold War to the present day, as we open up our discussions with the closed na-

tion. Cuba’s populace wants to open ties with its American neighbors, but given the temporally

Clark 23

relevant accusations of human rights violation by the single-party government, its path towards

integration with the American economy is riddled with questions and accusations that need res-

olution.

Cuba has historically been guilty of religious oppression. It’s Communist party, the only

party in its single-party government, previously disbarred Catholics from politics despite

Catholocism being the predominant religion of the nation and only offered freedom of religion af-

ter the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992.

Aside from this, Cuba has modern accusations of rights violations. It has been accused

of providing inhumane care and treatment to its prisoners with under-equipped, understaffed,

and unhygienic facilities despite having one of the largest prison populations in the world per

capita. This is paired with accusations of The country has in fact been labeled as one of the ten

most censored countries in the entire world. It is responsible for hundreds of undisclosed and

nonjudicial sentences of imprisonment of political dissidents and the nation little has been done

to resolve the issue yet.

Before Cuban relations can be opened, it needs to be understood what Cuba has done,

what of its policies it will resolve, and what policies it might continue to uphold. The modern

world does not wish to enable another Hundred Flowers Campaign, and resolutions that allow

for freedoms and rights must be protected in a way that do not negatively impact the populace

should the government choose to revert on these changes.

• The Castro regime began in 1959 and Fidel transferred power to his brother Raúl Castro in 2008.

• It is only one of four nations left in the world to identify itself as a communist state, and it’s the only one that still uses Marxist doctrine in its Constitution

Clark 24

• The country has not had diplomatic or economic relations with America since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1961, but the close by democratic superpower has a strong in-fluence regardless.

• Even more interesting, the two nation’s presidents are reinitiating Cuban-American re-lations, it’s already been labeled as the “Cuban Thaw”

• Despite the lengthy repause from diplomacy, America has had a strong influence on Cuba.

• Over half of the country wants to leave Cuba permanently, half of those people want to come to the United States.

• 79% are dissaitsfied with their economic system and over half want more parties than their single party government provides

• only 32% approve of the communist party in power• Raul Castro received a 47% approval rating. The Cuban people gave President

Obama an 80% approval rating• However, 75% report being afraid to speak openly in public

• It’s for good reason. Dissidents of the nation are in danger of imprisonment.• The Cuban government has laws that essentially enable them to make arrests at

their own discretion.• Worse than that, they often will indefinitely postpone trial dates so that prisoners

are kept without due process.• Prisoners can expect to be put in overpopulated rooms, with anywhere from three to

eight prisoners in a 10 by 13 cell.• Don’t expect plumbing in these facilities. There is no hot water and waste is

managed via holes in the center of cells and buckets in shared living spaces• Many of the prisons are poorly insulated, and the guards use these conditions as

punishment. The Cuban prison system has a long history of accusations of torture and abuse from former and current prisoners.

• Prisoners that are hostile are punished with less food. Those that are accept-ing, as the Cuban government calls it, “rehabilitation,” receive more.

• Prisoners are put in solitary confinement without access to light or circulating air. In extreme cases there have been political prisoners kept in confinement for nine years.

• Prisoners can expect to get beaten by guards• Alan Gross is an American that was arrested for treason after giving satellite phones

to a small Jewish community in Cuba.

Clark 25

• He was held from 2009 until 2014, not receiving a charge until 2011 and finally be-ing given a 15 year prison sentence shortly afterwards

• He was released early as a diplomatic gesture• He came back 110 pounds lighter and had five teeth missing

• Gross claims that he was denied medical and dental care because he was vo-cal about wishing to be released and staging a hunger strike to gain public at-tention

• Gross claims that he was locked in his cell with two other inmates for 23 hours out of the day

• At one point in his detainment he was speculated to have a cencerous tu-mor, and the Cuban prison administration refused to allow an independent doctor look at Mr. Gross

• The largest irony is that so much attention goes towards Guantanamo Bay, while equally horrendous acts are committed by the Cuban government. Of course that’s not to validate either of them.• It’s understandable though, the government of Cuba owns all public media coverage

and can control what gets out.• Prisons can only be visited by foreign media on specific occasions, and there is

substantial evidence that the prisons are staged on those days to appear at a higher living standard than they typically are.

• On one circumstance that I found, there was a wave of videos produced by pris-oners in secrecy. The conditions are far worse than the foreign media was shown.

• The prisoners even say that they fear they will be physically punished when they are identified in the video

• in fact, one American in the video was so brutally treated that he now re-quires a walker.• These prisoners speak out of desparation. They want an outside source

of intervention• It remains to be seen what America might do in response to these human rights accu-

sations. But the Cuban Thaw is the best opportunity in half a century for America to gain insight into the state of the Cuban nation. With any hope, Cuba will accept certain criticism as it tries to reopen diplomatic ties.