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M. Fidel Castro Ruz
President of the State Council
Palacio de la Revolución
La Habana, Cuba
Dear sir,
We hereby express our deep concern about the wave of repression in Cuba.
According to the information provided by CLADEHLT and the STC/WCL (Solidaridad de Trabajadores Cubanos), Cuban State Security officers have been applying repressive measures against well-known members of the Cuban opposition, especially journalists and leaders of workers' organisations, since March 18th 2003.
One of the people arrested was Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos, Secretary-General of the CUTC (Consejo Unitario de Trabajadores Cubanos), an independent trade union affiliate of the CLAT and the WCL. His house was searched in the night of 18 March. He was then arrested and taken to Villa Maristas. Carmelo Díaz Fernández, director at the Trade Union Press Agency, Alfredo Felipe Fuente, a trade union delegate, and Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a journalist, all three of them members of the CUTC, were also arrested.
Besides, all the books kept in the Trade Union library "Emilio Máspero", property of the CUTC, as well as a computer, two fax machines, three typewriters and three radios were illegally seized.
On Friday 4 April, a public prosecutor asked the court to sentence Pedro Pablo Álvarez to 25 years in jail and to sentence Oscar Espinosa Chepe and Carmelo Díaz Fernandez to 20 years and 15 years of prison respectively. The court would have complied with this demand.
These events again point to the totalitarian and repressive character of your Government, which keeps violating the rights of its citizens and keeps brutally repressing all actions of the opposition, even if they are taken peacefully.
In view of these blatant violations of human rights and freedom association, we demand:
| - | the immediate release of PEDRO PABLO ALVAREZ, CARMELO DIAZ FERNANDEZ, ALFREDO FELIPE FUENTE y OSCAR ESPINOSA CHEPE; |
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| - | the end of the persecution, in particular of the imprisonment, of people who peacefully exert their freedom of association and expression; |
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| - | the restitution of the documents and materials seized from the CUTC; |
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| - | respect for the human rights and democratisation in Cuba. |
Yours sincerely, |
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