OAS report assails Cuba's rights record

Published Wednesday, June 11, 1997, in the Miami Herald

OAS report assails Cuba's rights record

WASHINGTON -- (AP) -- In July 1996, Erasmin Quesada Alvarez, 25, a Cuban political prisoner, was given a few days of freedom to visit with his family. When he did not return to prison as scheduled, State Security agents went to his home and shot him to death, according to a report on human rights conditions in Cuba.

The generally scathing report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was presented to its parent body, the Organization of American States, at its annual general assembly last week in Lima, Peru.

Another victim of police, according to the report, was Renso Salvello Gallego, 29, who was detained by a police lieutenant while riding his bicycle in Havana in September 1996. With no words passing between them, the officer ``shot a projectile that we nt through his head, causing his death instantly,'' the report said.

These two incidents are among many the commission said it was informed of concerning Cuban agents. As a rule, the report said, these cases ``are not duly investigated and the perpetrators not punished.''

It said Cubans who dissent are punished by ``deprivation of liberty, temporary detentions, harassment, threats, loss of employment, home searches, adoption of disciplinary measures, etc.''

``A negative climate of uncertainty and fear [exists] among the citizenry, which is reinforced by the weak state of procedural guarantees, especially in trials that may directly or indirectly affect the system of power that exists in Cuba today,'' the report said.

Journalists are routinely barred from trials with political overtones; and the role of defense attorneys is limited to the trial stage -- they are not permitted to meet with their clients until shortly before the trial or in some cases until the moment it gets under way, the study said.

On prison conditions, the report said beatings of inmates ``are used habitually and systematically by Cuban state agents as a means of punishment or intimidation.''

It called for the unconditional release of the 1,173 Cubans it said are imprisoned for political crimes.