Sustained Harassment Incidents in Pinar del Rio, Cuba / IntraMuros

Antecedent.

On December 15, 2009 the government intervened in the courtyard of the house where Karina Galvez held gatherings of the journal Coexistence and they built a wall, seizing the covered terrace, pantry and bathroom, which had been built inside the courtyard of her property. The wall remains and the case is in the Supreme Court.

In 2011 the harassment continued.

This series of events covers the first six months of 2011 and reports on harassment directed to the members and collaborators of the digital magazine Coexistence of Pinar del Rio, Cuba:

January 30, 2011: Dagoberto Valdes, director of the magazine, was detained for three hours at the police station in Los Palacios in Pinar del Rio, on the grounds that the car in which he was going to Havana had been involved in an alleged accident.

Tuesday February 15: Threats to the musicians who participate in the 3rd Anniversary of Coexistence.

Thursday February 24: The Cuban Communist Party Office of Attention to Religious Affairs said that Dagoberto Valdés could not take a trip to Paris to attend a conference on Social Doctrine of the Church in the Mother House of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.

Monday March 14: The first program in the government television series, “Cuba’s Reasons,” attacked Dagoberto Valdés.

Tuesday March 15: The newspapers Granma and Juventud Rebelde published a two-page article attacking Dagoberto Valdés

Monday March 28: The second program in the government television series, “Cuba’s Reasons,” attacked Dagoberto Valdés again.

Tuesday March 29: Thenewspapers Granma and Juventud Rebelde published another article of two pages against Dagoberto Valdes which are a summary of the television programs yesterday as well as the previous week.

Monday April 4: The third program in the government television series, “Cuba’s Reasons,” attacked Dagoberto Valdés again.

Tuesday April 5: Thenewspapers Granma and Juventud Rebelde published the third article of two pages against Dagoberto Valdes, a summary of the television program of yesterday as well as the previous week.

Wednesday April 6: An agent asks what home the diplomat’s car parked outside the house of the economist Karina Galvez is visiting; it was Prof. Hans from the University of Stockholm from a conference on the economies of the Nordic countries.

Wednesday April 13: The Art School of Pinar full of agents returned to testify against Dagoberto Valdés.

Friday April 15: The provincial weekly “Guerrilla” in Pinar del Rio, publishes a page and a half article against Dagoberto Valdés who, according to the weekly newspaper, founded “the magazine Vitral” in 1994 and what should be “a Center for Civic and Religious …” and “has been trying since 1992 to unite the opposition …. “

Wednesday April 27: They cut the email to Servando White, songwriter of Pinar del Rio, whose house was celebrated the 3rd anniversary of the magazine Coexistence at a meeting in the directorate of provincial culture.

Saturday April 30: “A Revolutionary Act” was called “for the First of May” in the square in front of the house of Dagoberto Valdes, where they read three statements, the last person who read, at the end, shouted, “Down with the dissidents in the neighborhood!” Then two of the masses shouted “Down with the worms in the neighborhood and down the dissidents in the neighborhood!”

Wednesday May 11: Search and seizure of laptop, printer, cameras and books in the house of Juan Carlos Fernandez, a contributor to the magazine Coexistence. Detention and interrogation and warning notice. Belongings taken have not yet been returned. No search warrant or certificate of seizure.

Tuesday May 24: Henry Constantin, a member of the Editorial Board of Coexistence was expelled after two years of study at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA).

Friday May 27: At 1:28 in the morning Henry Constantín is taken by three militants of the FEU from his dorm in the ISA, and in a car taken to the bus terminal in Havana.

Monday May 30: Juan Carlos Fernandez and his wife go early to the headquarters of State Security Lieutenant Colonel Eduardo, who said he was the head of the Department that made the search and he explains to Irene that their possessions are now in the laboratory into the hands of experts who are reviewing. He promises that on Monday June 13 he will give her an answer. Upon leaving, he says: “Irene, talk with Juan Carlos, tell him to be quiet, we do not want to act, he already has an official warning and we will not do anything if you are quiet, but if you force us, we will act.”

Monday June 13: Irene, the wife of Juan Carlos Fernandez, goes to State Security to claim the computer, printer, cameras and video and all the books, memories and DVD taken from Juan Carlos and Irene in the search May 11. The answer: “We have a lot of work. Come within 15 days.”

Monday June 20: An Interior Ministry official visited Jesuhadín Perez, a member of the editorial board of the journal Coexistence to investigate his laptop, whether he had papers. He said he was an operative for computers without papers. If he built, if he was working, how he lived. He had been twice before, once in a neighbor’s home and another his home, but was not Jesuhadín wasn’t there.

Saturday June 25: Sironay Gonzalez, of the Coexistence Magazine team is summoned to a three-hour interview at the police station of San Cristobal in the present province of Artemis. Topic: the computer, how she lives, what she does.

Monday July 4: Karina Galvez, economist, member of the Editorial Board of Coexistence is summoned at two in the afternoon and threatened for hours by the Provincial Department of Education by the Director of this, the law, the director of technical education and the school principal. Topic: Her views on the Cuban economy in international media and Internet.

Wednesday July 13: Two teachers and a worker, Karina Galvez’s co-workers at the Institute of Economics where she teaches, are called by the Director of the School to warn them about their friendship with Karina Galvez.

Saturday July 16: Karina Galvez, a member of the editorial board of the journal Coexistence, is arrested in the middle of highway and taken in a police car to the Consolacion del Sur Police station in Pinar del Rio, where she was held for 3 hours, in the company of her sister Livia Gálvez, also of the Editorial Board and their three young children, 8 to 12 years. Having been to Havana to participate in a panel on the economic future of Cuba, they were held under the pretext that the car had been involved in having a road accident. They took their identity cards and mobile phones, also, to prevent their making calls.

– Will it continue?