Cuban Bloggers Defy Spate of Arrests

Internet activism in Cuba is on the rise despite growing government repression, according to a high-profile blogger in the country.

Yoani Sánchez told an October meeting of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) in Denver, Colorado that recent months had seen a considerable increase in the number of internet pages, bulletins, newspaper publications and blogs coming from a critical sector”.

“A small community of tweeters – around 150 – report throughout the country using text messages,” said Sánchez, whose blog Generation Y brought her to international attention. “This has changed the spectrum of information leaving the island. It has permitted voices critical of the government to report on what is happening with immediacy and autonomy.”

This year, the Cuban authorities have made it easier for people to use the internet, opening more than 100 access points across the country. But they censor foreign content by blocking certain websites, and the costs of using the service are high. (See Tight Controls Over Cuban Web Access.)

At the same time, the authorities have continued to take aggressive action against dissidents.

“There has been no improvement in Cuba with regard to freedom of the press and expression,” Sánchez said at the Denver event. “Repression has been characterised by the increase in arbitrary arrests”.

IAPA, too, has described rising “repression of freedom of expression” over recent months, noting the arbitrary arrest of three independent journalists on October 14.

A non-government human rights group, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, recorded at least 708 detentions of rights activists and journalists in September.

Sánchez, who is Cuban vice-chair of IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, told delegates, “Since January this year up until the date on which this report is presented, the number of arbitrary arrests is around 4,000, a figure which should be added to the 12,800 cases reported since 2010, the year that they began to release political prisoners from the Black Spring.”

Seventy-five dissidents, including many journalists, were imprisoned in March 2003 in what became known as the Black Spring. All were eventually released, but Sánchez, who herself has been refused permission to leave the country on multiple occasions, noted that those still living in Cuba were not allowed to travel.

The official position is that these dissidents are on extended parole and thus subject to travel restrictions. They are not covered by new rules dating from late last year which make it easier for Cubans to travel abroad.

Yaremis Flores is an independent lawyer and journalist in Cuba.